The US is nearly evenly split over whether or not former President Donald Trump should go to jail for his felony conviction in New York.
A recent poll by AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 48% of US adults wanted Trump to do time behind bars for his crimes. However, 50% felt that the Republican presidential candidate should not be sent to prison after being found guilty at his hush money trial in May.
Approximately eight out of 10 Democrats think the 78-year-old should face prison, while independents are divided over the issue. Just under half (49%) of independents say he should with a little less (46%) say he shouldn’t be locked up.
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The majority of Republicans believe that Trump was mistreated by the legal system and think he should not face any jail time. However, Democrats largely disagree and believe he was treated fairly as a defendant. Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a felony, a fact Joe Biden is often keen to point out during the pair’s respective presidential campaigns.
His Republican rival, though, blamed the Democrats for his conviction. “The only way they think they can win this election is by doing exactly what they’re doing right now, winning in the courts because they can’t win it at the ballot box. So we’re going to show them,” said Trump less than 24 hours after being found guilty.
Trump’s sentencing was due on July 11, three days before the Republican National Convention opens, but last week was pushed back to September at the earliest. By then, early voting in several states will already be underway. “I thought it was all a sham to begin with,” said Dolores Mejia, a 74-year-old Republican in Peoria following the trial. She added: “I wasn’t surprised he got convicted because the court was in New York, a very blue state. It seemed like it was thoroughly stacked against him.”
The poll, of 1,088 adults questioned in June, also found that 14% of Republicans do approve of Trump’s conviction, with 12% believing he should go to jail. Leigh Gerstenberger, a Pennsylvania Republican, said: “I knew he had a big ego and questionable values when I voted for him the first time in 2016, but I thought the mantle of the presidency would be a humbling experience for him, and I was wrong.”
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The 71-year-old retiree continued: “I could not be more disappointed in his conduct both in office and out of office. There are plenty of Americans who have spent time behind bars for lesser offences. President Trump should not be treated any differently.” Around four in 10 US adults are extremely or very confident that Trump has been treated fairly by either the jurors, the judge or the prosecutors. Just under half (46%) approve of the conviction in the case while about three in 10 disapprove and one-quarter are neutral.
Christopher Smith, a 43-year-old independent in Tennessee believes, like some Americans, that Trump should not be jailed but does not agree with his arguments over being treated unfairly by the justice system. “I don’t think the particular crime deserves time. I see what he did, lying on business records because of an affair, as more of a moral crime.”
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