Comey Firing Poll: Only 29% Of Americans Approve Of Trump's Actions

Just 29 percent of Americans approve of President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey as the investigation into Russian interference with the U.S. election heats up, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday indicates.

Trump fired Comey Tuesday and admitted in an NBC interview Thursday he was thinking about the Russian inquiry when he decided to fire Comey. The action touched off howls of protest among Democrats and comparisons to Watergate.

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Earlier, Trump spokesmen explained the firing by citing a memo written by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein criticizing the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails, sparking a threat by Rosenstein to resign.

Forty-six percent of those queried agreed with the statement Comey was fired to slow down the FBI investigation of Russian interference. Among Democrats, the percentage was 74 percent. Just 38 percent said they thought the firing was based on Comey’s handling of the investigation into Clinton’s emails, including nearly two-thirds of Republicans.

Seventy-eight percent said they would have more confidence in a special prosecutor investigating Russian interference compared with 15 percent who picked Congress.

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The NBC/WSJ poll, conducted Thursday-Saturday, 38 percent of Americans disapproved of Comey’s firing and 32 percent were undecided. Among Republicans 38 percent approved compared to 9 percent of Democrats and 21 percent of independents. Just 8 percent of Republican disapproved, compared to 66 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of independents.

The poll also indicated Trump’s approval ratings dropped a point from last month to 38 percent, 20 percent higher than Comey’s approval rating. Fifty-two percent have a negative view of Trump.

Thirty percent of those queried said their impression of Trump was negatively affected by the Comey firing.

The poll queried 800 U.S. adults, nearly half by cell phone, and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Trump repeatedly has attempted to downplay Russian interference in the election, calling it “fake news” and demanding more attention be paid to who leaked the revelations of former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia. Flynn misrepresented his meetings with Russian Ambassador James Kislyak and was fired 18 days after then-Acting Attorney General Sally Yates advised the White House of the problem.

Yates testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week she was unsure what went into Flynn’s firing because she herself was after she warned the White House because of her refusal to defend Trump’s first executive order banning travelers from certain Muslim-majority countries.

“I don’t have any way of knowing what, if anything, they did,” Yates testified. “If nothing was done, then certainly that would be concerning.”

Yates warning came Jan. 26, one day before Comey was invited to the White House for dinner with Trump where he reportedly was asked to pledge his loyalty and declined.

Democrats Sunday used the firing to again demand a special prosecutor. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on CNN’s “State of the Union” a special prosecutor would give Americans more confidence in the system.

“To have that special prosecutor, people would breathe a sigh of relief, because then there would be a real independent person overlooking the FBI director,” Schumer said on “State of the Union.” He also noted a special prosecutor would be immune from firing except for cause and “can look into any attempts to thwart the investigation.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” what’s even more concerning than the firing itself was Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ involvement, given that he had pledged to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.