A little research reveals that the WSJ/NBC Poll regarding President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey isn’t all that telling.
Judging from some of the news reports and accompanying headlines, one would think Americans overwhelmingly disapproved of the president’s action, but the WSJ/NBC Poll shows that the country is split – 38 percent disapproved, 29 percent approved and 32 percent had no opinion. The poll did not reveal how many of the individuals contacted were unaware of who Comey was. Here are a few headlines from newspapers and Internet reports:
“Just 29 Percent Approval of Trump’s firing of James Comey.” – NBC News
“Opinion on Trump Stable Despite Tumult over Comey Firing, Poll Finds.” – The Wall Street Journal
“Two in five Americans unhappy with Comey firing,” -Washington Examiner
“Poll: Comey’s firing gets low approval; Trump’s support unmoved.” – CNN
“Poll: Trump’s approval dips lower, massive disapproval of decision to fire Comey.” – AOL-com
Notice that AOL’s, “Trump’s approval dips lower,” doesn’t jibe with The Wall Street Journal’s “Opinion on Trump stable,” and CNN’s “Trump’s support unmoved.” Trump’s overall approval/disapproval ranking didn’t change.
Perhaps the best assessment came from Hot-Air.com, a popular Internet site on politics, reporting that this story means more in Official Washington and that nearly a third of those polled have no opinion. “It’s inside baseball, a Beltway story, and most Americans aren’t terribly interested in those stories.” This was the headline on the Hot-Air report:
“Do Americans really care about the Comey firing?” – Hot-Air.com
Then there was the headline on Breitbart’s Internet site:
POLL: COMEY ‘SCANDAL’ GREETED BY YAWNS, INDIFFERENCE AMONG VOTERS.” – Breitbart
As I reported earlier, the firing of the FBI director does not mean that the agency’s investigation of the alleged Russian connection comes to a halt. And, the FBI will continue to provide the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee with investigative facts.
Those legislators who are calling for a special prosecutor are telling us we shouldn’t have put them in office; admitting they don’t have the integrity to complete a bipartisan review.
Democrats are now saying they will block the nomination of a new FBI director until a special prosecutor is selected. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) have said they will call for Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to resign if he refuses to name a special prosecutor. Fox’s Tucker Carlson jokingly said that the Dems would oppose God as special prosecutor. If ever there was a time for the GOP to stand together…
I expect the Dems will double their effort with the story of Trump revealing classified information to the Russians leaked to the Washington Post.
Finally … yes, the president could have handled the firing of Comey in a more civil manner. He didn’t. Get over it.
