Two-thirds of Americans oppose the idea of President Trump potentially pardoning his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort after he was convicted of tax and bank fraud.
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll released Friday found that 66 percent of respondents said Trump should not pardon Manafort, compared to 18 percent who said he should.
Support for a possible pardon is not high among just Republicans, either, with only 36 percent of the Republicans in the poll supporting it.
{mosads} The survey comes a week after Manafort was convicted on eight felony counts on charges brought forth by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani suggested that the president might have asked for advice during Manafort’s trial earlier this month on whether to pardon his former campaign chairman.
Trump has defended Manafort as a “good person” and tore into Mueller’s Russia probe, saying it was “very sad what they’ve done to Paul Manafort.”
The new poll found that 63 percent of Americans support Mueller’s probe — compared to the 29 percent who oppose it.
Trump’s job disapproval rating is at a new high, ABC News reported.
Sixty percent off respondents said they disapprove of Trump’s performance in office in the newest poll, the highest number counted by this poll in his presidency thus far.
Only 36 percent said that they approved of Trump’s job performance.
ABC News noted that Trump’s average approval rating since he entered the White House is the lowest of any modern president since the 1940s.
Trump, however, touted his popularity among Republicans on Sunday night, including an incorrect percentage while tweeting about his approval rating.
“Over 90% approval rating for your all time favorite (I hope) President within the Republican Party and 52% overall,” Trump tweeted. “This despite all of the made up stories by the Fake News Media trying endlessly to make me look as bad and evil as possible. Look at the real villains please!”
Last week’s poll by The Wall Street Journal and NBC News found that Trump had a 44 percent approval — 52 percent disapproval rating at the time. His approval in right-leaning Rasmussen Reports polling can hover closer to 50 percent.
While other polls have had his approval among Republicans at 90 percent, his support among Republicans was lower in the new poll, at 78 percent. Just 6 percent of Democrats polled said they approve of Trump.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted Aug. 26-29 among 1,003 adults. The margin of error is 3.6 percentage points.