More Americans now believe Russia investigation is ‘politically motivated’ – poll

A majority of Americans now say that the investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election is politically motivated, according to a new poll.

The CBS News poll found that 53 percent of Americans believe that US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged ‘Russian meddling’ in the election is “politically motivated” while 44 percent think the investigation is “justified.”

The poll also found that, overall, 76 percent of Americans still believe US President Donald Trump should cooperate if he is asked to be interviewed as part of Mueller’s investigation. In January, the percentage of people who believed Trump should cooperate was at 84 percent.

The numbers reveal that Republicans are even more critical of the investigation now than they were earlier in the year. In January, the number of Republicans who believed Trump should cooperate with Mueller was at 73 percent, while that number has now dropped to 53 percent.

Thirty-three percent of those polled said that Republicans in Congress should “try to end the investigation,” while 64 percent said that Republicans should “let the investigation continue.” On this question, there was a clear split between Republicans and Democrats, with 90 percent of Democrats saying the investigation should continue and only 29 percent of Republicans agreeing.

The poll was conducted by telephone between May 3-6 using a random sampling of 1,101 American adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.