National
Republicans embrace WikiLeaks, and Trump voters warm to Putin, poll finds
In yet another example of how divided the U.S. population remains along political lines, a new poll found that Republicans and Democrats have wildly differing opinions on WikiLeaks, while Donald Trump voters are much more supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin than Hillary Clinton voters.
The numbers from The Economist/YouGov poll of 1,465 U.S. adults taken from Dec. 10-13 shouldn’t be shocking after the presidential campaign. Trump defeated Clinton in electoral votes and took the majority of states, but Clinton won the popular vote, again showing a divided population.
WikiLeaks, which published hacked, embarrassing and damaging emails from Clinton campaign chief John Podesta throughout the campaign, saw its approval rating among Republicans soar, while Democrats soured on the organization run by Julian Assange.
When former government contractor Edward Snowden began leaking classified documents from the National Security Agency in June of 2013, WikiLeaks had a minus-47 net favorability rating among Republicans. It improved to plus-9 in August, when the organization was releasing Clinton documents, and now stands at plus-27.
WikiLeaks net favorability among Democrats was minus-3 in June of 2013, minus-15 in August and now stands at minus-28.
The CIA believes the Podesta emails were hacked by the Russian government with the intention of helping Trump win the election, according to The New York Times. Trump called the assertion “ridiculous.”
But Russia and Putin were a large issue in the election. Trump asked Russia to “find” Clinton emails from her private server during a July press conference.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press,” Trump said.
Clinton said during the final presidential debate that Putin wanted Trump to win because he would be “a puppet.” Since the election, Trump has spoken to Putin more than any other world leader.
Americans believe that Trump’s opinion of Russia is much more friendly than their own, according to the poll. Just 21 percent of all Americans and 28 percent of Trump voters think Russia is an ally or friendly to the United States. But 54 percent of Americans and 47 percent of Trump voters believe that Trump thinks of Russia as an ally or friendly.
Putin himself creates even more division. Just eight percent of Clinton voters have a favorable impression of the Russian leader, while 35 percent of Trump voters do, according to the poll.