Gallup polls Americans on Trump’s firing of Comey
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In this May 12, 2017, tweet, President Donald Trump, in an apparent warning to his fired FBI director, said that James Comey had better hope there are no "tapes" of their conversations. Trump's tweet came the morning after he asserted Comey had told him three times that he wasn't under FBI investigation. (AP Photo)
NewsWorks Tonight host Dave Heller sits down for his weekly conversation with Gallup’s Frank Newport to talk about trends in U.S. opinion.
First reactions to President Trump’s firing of former FBI Director Jim Comey are significantly more negative than President Clinton’s firing of then FBI Director Jeff Sessions in July 1993.
In polling on Wednesday and Thursday night, 39 percent of Americans approve, 46 percent disapprove, and 15 percent have no opinion. When we asked the same question about the Sessions firing in July 1993, 44 percent approved, 24 percent disapproved and a much higher 32 percent didn’t have an opinion.
Naturally, reactions to Trump’s actions are highly polarized. About as many Republicans approve as Democrats disapprove.
There were no signs in Gallup’s May poll (May 3-7) that Russia or Comey were the major problems on people’s minds. Instead, Americans’ specific mentions of the most important problem facing the nation is of the government itself.
Meanwhile, some have called for Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner to have more influence in the White House and to restrain Trump’s initial instincts. As far as Americans are concerned, Ivanka is more popular than her father. New data show that Ivanka’s image is 47 percent favorable and 36 percent unfavorable, while Donald’s is 44 percent favorable, 55 percent unfavorable. She is a +11 image wise, while he is a -11.
There are prognostications that as many as four out of 10, or even more, jobs will be eliminated in the future because of technology, robots, and artificial intelligence. Our conclusion is that today’s workers are [blissfully?] unaware to a large degree of this looming job-apocalypse on the horizon.
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