Harvard Poll: Two-Thirds Say Russia Investigations ‘Hurting Country'

A Harvard University poll has found that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the FBI’s Russia investigations are “hurting the country” and a majority believe it is time for Congress and the establishment media to “move on to other issues.”

According to the Harvard-Harris poll, which The Hill obtained, 64% of “voters said the investigations into President Trump and Russia are hurting the country” while another 56% “said it’s time for Congress and the media to move on to other issues, compared to 44 percent who said the focus should stay on Russia.”

In addition, the poll found that that 73% said “they’re concerned that the Russia probes have caused Congress to lose focus on the issues important to them. That figure encompasses 81 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of independents and 68 percent of Democrats.”

“While the voters have a keen interest in any Russian election interference, they are concerned that the investigations have become a distraction for the president and Congress that is hurting rather than helping the country,” the poll’s co-director Mark Penn reportedly said. “Most voters believe that the president’s actions don’t rise to the level of impeachable offenses, even if some of them were inappropriate.”

The poll comes on the heels of an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey that found that half of Americans believe the media’s Russia coverage has been “irresponsible/overdramatized.”

While 89% of Republicans and a strong plurality of independents (48%) believe the media’s coverage has been “irresponsible/overdramatized,” 63% of Democrats believe the media’s Russia coverage has been “responsible/proper.”

Sixteen percent of Democrats believe the media’s Russia coverage has been “irresponsible/overdramatized,” and just as many Democrats (16%) believe the media have actually been “too restrained,” according to the poll.

The Harvard-Harris poll “is a collaboration of the Harvard Center for American Political Studies and The Harris Poll,” and the survey’s “partisan breakdown is 35 percent Democrat, 29 percent Republican, 30 percent independent and 6 percent other.” It was conducted June 19-21.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll was conducted June 17-20, and the poll’s margin of error is +/- 3.27 percentage points.