Great news for Hillary, bad news for America — from multiple perspectives.
Even if Hillary Clinton is slapped with a felony indictment — which many of us think is a longshot, no matter how well-deserved — it looks like it will have little impact on her chances of being elected.
A shocking half of all voters think a felony indictment shouldn’t stop Hillary from running for president — including, not shockingly, a solid majority of Democrats.
According to the new Rasmussen Reports survey:
Most continue to believe likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is a lawbreaker, but half of all voters also say a felony indictment shouldn’t stop her campaign for the presidency.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 43% of Likely U.S. Voters think Clinton should immediately stop campaigning if she is charged with a felony in connection with her use of a private e-mail server while secretary of State. Fifty percent (50%), however, think she should continue running until a court determines her guilt or innocence. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Among Democratic voters, 71% believe Clinton should keep running, a view shared by only 30% of Republicans and 46% of voters not affiliated with either major party.
Forty percent (40%) of all voters say they are less likely to vote for Clinton because of the e-mail issue, while nearly half (48%) say it will have no impact on their vote. Just eight percent (8%) say the issue makes them more likely to vote for the former first lady.
Sixty-five percent (65%) consider it likely that Clinton broke the law by sending and receiving e-mails containing classified information through a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of State. This includes 47% who say it’s Very Likely. These findings are unchanged from January. Thirty percent (30%) still say Clinton is unlikely to have broken the law with the e-mail arrangement, with 16% who say it’s Not At All Likely.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on May 29-30, 2016 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Last August, 46% of all voters – and 24% of Democrats – said Clinton should suspend her campaignfor the Democratic presidential nomination until all of the legal questions about her use of the private e-mail server are resolved. But just 25% think it is even somewhat likely that Clinton will be indicted.
In a report released last week, the State Department’s inspector general, an Obama appointee, concluded that Clinton knowingly broke department rules by using the private e-mail server for official business including top secret discussions. This contradicts her claims that the arrangement had been officially approved.
Those under 40 are less convinced than their elders are that Clinton broke the law and are more supportive of her staying in the race even if indicted. But roughly 40% of voters of all ages are less likely to vote for Clinton because of the e-mail issue.
Fifty-four percent (54%) of all voters believe the Justice Department should name an independent prosecutor to decide whether criminal charges should be brought against Clinton in the e-mail case.
Clinton is essentially tied with presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump in Rasmussen Reports’ latest weekly White House Watch survey.
So, there you have it. As if it wasn’t already sad enough that voters don’t seem to care about a leader blatantly lying to the American people to advance not just her own agenda — but just her own self — blatant disregard for our nation’s rule of law doesn’t seem to matter, either.
Seven years of watching the man in the White House doing both of those has certainly lowered the bar, hasn’t it?
Guess the only good news for us in this is that Hillary should be an easier opponent to beat this fall than some of the others the Dems might pull out in her place in the event of her indictment.
Source: Allen West
