Did Obama illegally spy on Trump? Here's what a new poll shows Americans think

Americans are fairly evenly split along partisan lines when it comes to the question of whether senior Obama administration officials illegally spied on President Trump's campaign and transition, a new poll showed Monday.

Results from the latest Just the News poll with Scott Rasmussen show 45 precent of Americans believe it was very or somewhat likely that the prior administration improperly spied on Trump, compared to 43 percent who did not. Thirteen-percent said they were unsure.

With recent revelations that 39 separate Obama administration officials in their final days in office sought to unmask intercepted conversations of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, the question about the propriety of that monitoring was acutely split along lines of political party, gender and age.

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Just the News Daily Poll

With Scott Rasmussen

A whopping 80% of Republicans believed it was very or somewhat likely that illegal spying occurred, compared to just 19% of Democrats. Independents were evenly split.

On gender, men were more likely to believe illegal spying was likely at 52% compared to 39% of women.

Age also played a factor. People over 45 were more likely to believe some form of illegal spying occurred, compared to those under that age, the poll showed.

"Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump both received very partisan responses during their time in office. Both earned very high positive reviews from their own party and very negative reviews from the other," Rasmussen explained. "Those deep divisions are reflected in the question about the Obama Administration illegally spying on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign."

"The polarized nature of the response is even more clear when we look at those who have strong opinions about President Trump. Among those who Strongly Approve of his performance, 90% consider it likely that there was illegal spying by the Obama team. Among those who Strongly Disapprove of the current president, 90% say such spying is unlikely," he said.

Rasmussen also noted significant differences by race and ethnicity. White voters, by a 50% to 38% margin, say it’s likely officials in the Obama Administration spied illegally on the 2016 Republican campaign. By a 60% to 29% margin, black voters disagree. Thirty-five percent of Hispanic voters consider it likely, while 48% say unlikely, the poll showed.

The national survey of 1,200 Americans was conducted May 21-23, 2020 by Rasmussen, a polling veteran. Margin of sampling error: +/- 2.8% for full sample. 

You can review the full cross-tabulations here.