What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending November 18, 2017

The sexual harassment wildfire born in Hollywood and in the media is now sweeping into the halls of the U.S. Senate.

Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, now stands accused of sexual harassment and assault. We’ll let you know early next week if voters think he should resign.

Most voters don’t care for Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, the former judge who now faces multiple allegations of harassing young women, but Republican voters aren't convinced that the Senate GOP leadership should try to deny Moore his seat if he wins next month. 

Just prior to his election as president, only 12% of voters said the allegations of sexual harassment by multiple women against Republican nominee Donald Trump changed their decision on which presidential candidate to vote for. 

On the other hand, former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner pleaded guilty earlier this year to texting sexually explicit material to an underage girl, and voters strongly believed he should be put in prison for it. Weiner recently began a 21-month prison sentence.

Looking back in 2015 on Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern who had an affair with President Bill Clinton, 69% said the 22-year-old’s relationship with the 49-year-old president was a consensual one between two adults. Just 22% believe Lewinsky was the victim of an older, more powerful man.

Most Americans see sexual harassment in the workplace as a serious problem, and nearly half have experienced it themselves or know someone who has.

Regardless of the outcome of the Moore and Franken cases, most voters think it’s probable Republicans will lose control of Congress in next year's midterm elections. 

Trump’s daily job approval rating remains in the low to mid-40s again this week. 

The latest Rasmussen Minute explores whether Trump's attempts to drain The Swamp mark him as a true independent, our first third-party president in over 150 years. 

The president just wrapped up a 12-day trip through Asia, and voters who were following his travels most closely tend to think he did a good job, particularly on trade. Voters are more optimistic about U.S.-China relations following his visit with Chinese President Xi Jingping.

Voters by a two-to-one margin agree with the president that it’s better for the United States – and the world - to have Russia on our side. 

Congress is moving closer to a major overhaul of the U.S. tax code. But as recently as six weeks ago, most voters said it was unlikely Congress would pass those tax changes, although that included only 11% who said it was Not At All Likely.

The government jobs report for October showed the hurricane-hit U.S. economy rebounding strongly, with the unemployment rate down now to 4.1%, the lowest level since 2000. Confidence in the job market has risen to a new high. 

Economic confidence remains high. The latest Rasmussen Reports Consumer Spending Update shows that Americans are ready to spend for the holidays.

Still, only 33% of voters think the country is headed in the right direction. 

A sizable number of voters see the secretary of State as the most important Cabinet position these days, but one-in-five voters aren’t familiar with the person currently holding that role.

Seventy-nine percent (79%) of Americans think their fellow countrymen pay too much attention to celebrity news and not enough attention to news that has real impact on their lives.

In other surveys last week:

-- Alcohol-induced deaths on college campuses are back in the news, and many Americans continue to question whether schools are doing enough to prevent them.

-- After the death of a fraternity pledge at Florida State University, all fraternities and sororities at the school have been suspended indefinitely. But Americans aren’t convinced that banning Greek life on campus is the answer.

-- With more states poised to potentially legalize recreational marijuana use, support among voters to legalize it in their state is slowly climbing. 

-- A Los Angeles City Council member has introduced a motion to add Hugh Hefner’s storied Playboy Mansion to the city’s registry of historic cultural monuments, an idea that most Americans oppose.

Visit the Rasmussen Reports home page for the latest current polling coverage of events in the news. The page is updated several times each day.

Remember, if it's in the news, it's in our polls.