Is Trump, Russia Story A Media Hoax? Most Republicans Think So, Poll Shows

President Donald Trump had long blasted the media for its heavy coverage of his political campaign’s alleged links to Russia and the former Cold War adversary’s accused hacking efforts to disrupt last year’s election to hand him a victory, calling it a hoax and questioning why former rival candidate Hillary Clinton wasn’t more of a target. Trump doubled down on his assertions with two tweets Monday.

As it turns out, most Republicans agreed with Trump and believed there was no Russian “interference” during his run for the Oval Office, a CBS News poll released Wednesday showed.

Read: Did Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Meet A Russian Oligarch?

The poll, which also showed GOP members did not blame the president for last week’s botched repeal and replacement efforts of Obamacare, discovered 64 percent of Republicans thought President Vladimir Putin’s regime did not meddle in the election compared to 67 percent of Democrats who believed Russia did and did so to favor Trump.

Similar political lines were drawn across the board. Overall, 40 percent of respondents said Russia interfered in order to help Trump while just 13 percent of Republicans felt the same way. Thirty-seven percent of independents agreed with the Democrats, but 36 percent of independents also felt Russia had not interfered.

As the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as well as the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, continued their probes into the allegations, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of Americans wanted the FBI to investigate supposed links between the president’s associates and Russia. But those results were also quite partisan, with 82 percent of Democrats desiring an investigation compared to only 35 percent of Republicans. All told, 59 percent of Republicans said an investigation was not necessary.

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An overwhelming number of Republicans also believed Trump’s accusations that President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower in New York. Seventy-four percent said it was very or somewhat likely, and the same amount of Democrats said it was not very or not too likely.