MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th March, 2023) A majority of Americans polled by Quinnipiac University believe that former US President Donald Trump should be disqualified from running in the 2024 presidential race if he is charged.
Trump is under multiple Federal and state investigations. The Department of Justice is probing him in connection with the 2020 post-election protests, while New York prosecutors are seeking charges over the hush money that Trump's lawyers paid to an adult film actress shortly before the 2016 presidential vote. Trump says he wants to run again in 2024.
Asked whether criminal charges should disqualify him from the race, if filed, 57% of 1,788 adults polled over the week said Trump should be barred from running, while 38% said he should not. Five percent were undecided.
The survey split heavily along party lines, with 88% of Democrats and 55% of independents supporting Trump's disqualification, whereas 75% of Republicans rejected the idea.
The poll also found that 55% of respondents said hush-money allegations against Trump were very serious or somewhat serious, while 42% said they were not too serious or not serious at all.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office is reportedly seeking an indictment against Trump over the payment to the actress, which was made by Trump's lawyers to stop the scandal from derailing his 2016 campaign. Sixty-two percent of those polled said they believed the case was mainly motivated by politics, while 32% said it was motivated by law.
