75 percent of Republicans say Trump shouldn't fire Mueller


Most Republicans are on President Trump's side, a new CBS poll finds, in the public debate and federal investigation over whether Trump or people close to him colluded with Russia to meddle in the 2016 election. A majority of GOP respondents indicated they believe Trump's word over that of fired FBI Director James Comey and think the president is handling the Russia issue well.
That support is what makes their opposition to Trump's rumored interest in firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is heading the investigation, so striking: Fully 75 percent of Republicans — barely below the national average of 81 percent — say Trump should not fire Mueller.
Trump has reportedly received the same wise counsel from White House aides who understand the terrible optics of firing a man selected to be an impartial investigator of your own behavior. Read The Week's Simon Maloy here on why those optics may not be enough to stay Trump's hand.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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