According to politico only one-third of Americans say they believe Russia influenced the 2016 presidential election. The CIA and FBI have said Russia attempted to interfere in the election to help boost President-elect Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. Trump has sounded a skeptical note about the assessment, with his team saying it would like to see a full report before rendering a judgment.
Just 29% say they believe Russian hacking helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton, while 71% say they think it had no impact.
Broadly, at 31%, more Americans said Trump is “too friendly” toward Russian President Vladimir Putin than the 24% who said he’s “not too friendly.” Another 44% had no opinion.
And about 50% of Americans said they approved of Trump’s handling of the transition, while 41% disapprove, the survey shows. That approval number is significantly below President Barack Obama’s in 2008 (73%) and Bill Clinton’s in 1992 (77%).
Trump himself has cast doubt on the CIA conclusion, tweeting that if he lost and claimed that the Russians helped Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, it would be called a conspiracy theory.
Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
Unless you catch “hackers” in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn’t this brought up before election?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
Republican leaders in the Senate, however, have called the CIA hacking “an American issue,” rather than a partisan one.