PRESS RELEASE Contact: press@congressionalintegrity.org
For Immediate Release
Date: March 20, 2023
Watch the full briefing here
Washington, DC – Today former Ambassador Norm Eisen, noted legal scholar and counsel in the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump, Public Policy Polling Analyst Jim Williams, Navigator Research Lead Pollster Bryan Bennett, and Congressional Integrity Project Senior Advisor Leslie Dach joined a press call hosted by the Congressional Integrity Project.
The virtual press conference followed this weekend’s news surrounding a possible criminal indictment of Donald Trump and the release of a new poll commissioned by the Congressional Integrity Project and conducted by Public Policy Polling. The poll found that the American people want Congress to focus on the real issues impacting their lives rather than partisan investigations into President Biden and his family. It also found that Americans have an unfavorable view of Republicans in Congress and that they have serious concerns about election deniers and insurrectionist supporters conducting these investigations. The House returns from recess on Wednesday and the American people have spoken – their work so far has been a disaster.
“This kind of inflamed rhetoric from Trump is calibrated to the level of danger he feels. These are substantial charges and he is reflecting that, albeit in a reprehensible fashion. And instead of the House majority acting as a responsible brake on that rhetoric, they are inflaming it,” said former Ambassador Norm Eisen. “This MAGA majority in the House of Representatives does not respect the rule of law. Trump’s House MAGA allies are trying to interfere with the criminal investigations, but just as he and they failed in 2020 with their attempted election interference, they will fail again here.”
“Americans agree that these Republican investigations are really just political stunts. We found that Americans want Congress to focus on the real issues, to stop playing partisan games, and work together to solve their problems and that they’d rather Congress focus on issues like rising costs and health care instead of investigating the Biden administration,” said Jim Williams, Public Policy Polling Analyst. “Americans remain concerned about the election deniers running these investigations and are the same ones that tried to return the 2020 election, and condone the January 6 attack on the Capitol.”
“One thing that we have seen kind of consistently over the course of the last few months is that there’s a really big disjuncture between where Americans are prioritizing issues and where Americans see Republicans in Congress focused on,” said Bryan Bennett, Navigator Research Lead Pollster. “In our last survey, we asked a question that was ‘Do you think Donald Trump committed a crime at any point as President’ and by a 25-point margin, 57% of Americans say that he did commit a crime while he was president.”
“MAGA Republicans have made it clear that they don’t care about the issues that concern hard-working Americans. They’d rather investigate President Biden and his family than do their job and address the actual issues facing our country,” said Leslie Dach, Senior Advisor to the Congressional Integrity Project. “Now they are attacking the January 6 committee, they’re intent on visiting those insurrectionists who committed violent crimes and are currently in jail. This is all part of a larger attack on the rule of law and law enforcement by Speaker McCarthy and the MAGA majority. And it’s time for that to end.”
Watch the full briefing here.
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