A majority of Americans disapprove of the way President Donald Trump handled the summit in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a new CBS News poll finds.
Overall, 32% approve of the President’s handling of the summit — with 8% of Democrats and 29% of independents saying so.
Seven in 10 Americans believe findings by US intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, though a larger share of Democrats do (89%) than independents (67%) or Republicans (51%). More than four-in-10 Republicans (42%) say they do not believe the intelligence assessments.
Forty-six percent of Americans say the President’s approach to Russia is too friendly, up from 35% in April 2017.
Looking ahead to 2018,61% of Americans say they are very or somewhat concerned about Russian interference in the midterm elections, including 87% of Democrats, but just 38% of Republicans.
More than six-in-10 Republicans (61%) say they are not very or not at all concerned about possible interference.
Trump has previously cast doubt on the intelligence community’s assessment on the Russian interference in the 2016 election, sidestepping questions about the conclusion at the Helsinki summit. He has attempted to clean up the resulting political controversy in recent days by saying he endorses the intelligence community’s belief that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, but has also said there “Could be other people also. A lot of people out there.”
The CBS News poll was conducted by telephone July 17-18,2018 among a random sample of 1,007 adults nationwide. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
