The public sides with Mueller (Washington Post)

[workinclasszero]

The public sides with Mueller
By Jennifer Rubin November 2 at 2:30 PM

The latest Post-ABC poll shows that Robert S. Mueller III, for now, enjoys overwhelming support for his investigation. He also gets high marks for the indictments of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and adviser Rick Gates. And in even worse news for President Trump, nearly half (49 percent) of Americans surveyed think he committed a crime.

Mueller receives 58 percent approval and only 28 percent disapproval from Americans. Even among Republicans, nearly 4 in 10 (38 percent approve). A plurality of white men without a college degree (44 percent to 35 percent), a key Trump demographic, approve of Mueller’s performance.

By a margin of 51 percent to 37 percent, Americans do not think Trump is cooperating with the investigation.

Even among Republicans (57 percent to 21 percent), voters strongly approve (69 percent to 17 percent) of the indictments for Manafort and Gates. If the two are betting on pardons, they might think again. Not only would Democrats and quite a few Republicans see that as blatant obstruction (and possible grounds for impeachment), but voters themselves would likely react very negatively. In theory what seemed like a sure bet — “Trump will protect me” — in practice seems increasingly unlikely. (Trump, of course, could not pardon either of them for state crimes, only federal offenses.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/11/02/the-public-sides-with-mueller/?utm_term=.98cc05a66988

[Princess Turandot]

1. There are undoubtedly several reasons that Mueller rolled out his initial indictment the way he did.

But by first making a straightforward case that Manaford is seriously corrupt, independent of anything to do with the 2016 election, he made it pretty much impossible for anyone to come to the guy's defense beyond the 'innocent until proven guilty' line.

Then while dropping numerous emailed blini-crumbs in the Papadoupulus indictment, they arrested him for straight-up lying to federal investigators, to which he then confessed. Now all that Trump can say is that the guy was a volunteer 'nobody'.

He's made it that much harder for he and his team to be portrayed as just being involved in a political vendetta/witch-hunt.