It has been clear for a while that a majority of Democrats will back Hillary Clinton no matter what she does. If they can accept a militaristic neocon who is far right on civil liberties and spent her time in the Senate working with the religious right, they would probably continue to support her if she was filmed bar-b-quing puppies. While we don’t have hard data to confirm this, we now have data to show that a majority of Democrats think she should continue to run even if indicted. While the source is sometimes questionable, I doubt that the house bias for Republicans affects much in this Rasmussen poll:
Most continue to believe likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is a lawbreaker, but half of all voters also say a felony indictment shouldn’t stop her campaign for the presidency.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 43% of Likely U.S. Voters think Clinton should immediately stop campaigning if she is charged with a felony in connection with her use of a private e-mail server while secretary of State. Fifty percent (50%), however, think she should continue running until a court determines her guilt or innocence. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Voters were evenly divided on this question in January, but at that time we didn’t include the name of any candidate.
Among Democratic voters, 71% believe Clinton should keep running, a view shared by only 30% of Republicans and 46% of voters not affiliated with either major party.
Forty percent (40%) of all voters say they are less likely to vote for Clinton because of the e-mail issue, while nearly half (48%) say it will have no impact on their vote. Just eight percent (8%) say the issue makes them more likely to vote for the former first lady.
Sixty-five percent (65%) consider it likely that Clinton broke the law by sending and receiving e-mails containing classified information through a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of State. This includes 47% who say it’s Very Likely. These findings are unchanged from January. Thirty percent (30%) still say Clinton is unlikely to have broken the law with the e-mail arrangement, with 16% who say it’s Not At All Likely.
To repeat, seventy-one percent of Democrats don’t even think that an indictment would be enough of a reason for Hillary Clinton to leave the race. Remember when Democrats used to complain about the Republican culture of corruption?
While there has been evidence of Clinton’s violation of the laws in effect as of 2009 for quite a while, the recent State Department Inspector General report verified this and demolished Clinton’s claims of the past year. The report showed how she knowingly violated the Federal Records Act, attempted to hide these violations, and failed to cooperate with the investigation. Clinton also used her private email to avoid compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, with several court cases regarding this in progress. The FBI continues to investigate her mishandling of classified information.
While people lower down have been prosecuted for far less than what Clinton has done with regards to classified information, many (including myself) believe that she will not be prosecuted. Rasmussen previously found that only 25 percent believe Clinton will be indicted. As a majority consider her to be guilty, this is a measure of distrust in the system as opposed to any belief that Clinton is innocent. The IG report might increase the chances of prosecution due to showing her unprecedented actions in exclusively using a private email system did represent an intentional violation of the rules.
Clinton’s actions at best represent a serious violation of rules designed to promote government transparency, as well as to maintain the historical record, showing Clinton to have been dishonest in her accounts of the scandal for the past year. At worst, Clinton might have been trying to hide evidence of influence peddling at the State Department and might have jeopardized the secrecy of classified information. While it might not matter against an opponent as weak as Donald Trump, it is unprecedented, and possibly foolhardy, for a major party to nominate a candidate who is involved in such a major scandal. The fact that Clinton’s supporters don’t even care is a further disappointment, even if not unexpected. I imagine that they wouldn’t care if Clinton were to ride out the election, and then pardon herself if elected.
