A plurality of Utahns say they disapprove of President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.
A new UtahPolicy.com survey finds 46% of Utah voters say they either “somewhat” or “strongly” disapprove of Trump’s decision to fire Comey. 37% say they approve of Trump dismissing the FBI director. 17% are undecided.
Utahns who are opposed to Trump’s firing of Comey feel much more strongly than those who support the move, with 32% saying they “strongly” disapprove, while only 20% “strongly” approve.
Trump fired Comey last week. Initially, Trump said he dismissed Comey because of the way he handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. However, one day later Trump admitted in an interview he got rid of Comey because of the accelerating investigation into Russia’s influence in the 2016 presidential election.
Following Comey’s dismissal, Trump seemingly threatened the former FBI Director on Twitter, saying he better hope no “tapes” exist of their conversations.
The survey was being conducted at the same time that revelations surfaced Comey circulated a memo at the Bureau that Trump asked him to back off of the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
On Thursday news broke that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein knew President Trump was going to fire Comey before he wrote a memo outlining the reasons for his dismissal.
On Wednesday, Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counselor to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Not surprisingly, Republicans have Trump’s back on the issue, while Democrats and independents are not for the move to fire Comey.
– Utah Republicans favor Comey’s dismissal 61-16%. 23% are undecided.
– Democrats overwhelmingly oppose Comey’s release 85-10%.
– Independent voters are opposed 59-23%.
A previous survey found that 54% of Utahns disapprove of President Trump’s job performance.
The Dan Jones & Associates survey was conducted May 15-16, 2017 among 603 registered Utah voters with a margin of error +/- 3.99%.
