WASHINGTON, -- A poll
released Monday suggests 58 percent of Americans believe Donald Trump would
have won the U.S. presidential election regardless of Russia's alleged
interference.
If the allegations by the U.S. intelligence community are proven
true, about 65 percent of Americans said the interference would be a crisis or
major problem for the United States. About 56 percent of Americans said the
United States should work to improve relations with Russia instead of taking a
hard-line stance through economic and diplomatic means.
The CNN/ORC telephone survey was conducted from
Thursday to Sunday on a random national sample of 1,000 adults and has a margin
of sampling error of 3 percent.
Nearly 80 percent said they have been following news about
Russia's alleged interference to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton since last year, a claim which 43
percent of people said was extremely or very likely to be true.
About 32 percent of people said the U.S. intelligence claims are
somewhat likely, while 24 percent said it is unlikely the claims are true.
When divided along party lines, 74 percent of Democrats think it
is extremely or very likely the claims are true, while 17 percent of
Republicans believe the same.
The poll also said 40 percent of Americans approve the way Trump
is handling his presidential transition. Last week, Gallup released a poll which indicated Trump's approval
rating is the lowest of the four incoming presidents Gallup has surveyed since
1992.
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