70 percent of Americans want Donald Trump investigated for sexual harassment
According to a new Quinnipiac University poll, most Americans want President Trump investigated for sexual harassment, and they aren’t afraid to say it.
Between the dates of Nov. 29 and Dec. 4, the polling team asked a random sample of 1,747 American adults across the nation this question among others: “Do you think Congress should investigate the accusations of sexual harassment against President Trump, or not?”
Seventy percent of Americans responded that they would like the U.S. Congress to investigate the 45th president, while only 25 percent said they would not. Most Americans polled also said they found it hypocritical for President Trump to criticize men accused of sexual harassment.
Quinnipiac also asked, “Have you ever been sexually assaulted, meaning someone touched you in an inappropriate, sexual manner without your consent, or not?”
Among those polled, 32 percent said they had been assaulted, which was consistent across all age groups from 18 to over 65. Women made up 47 percent of those sexually assaulted while 17 percent were men.
Looking further at the Quinnipiac findings, 39 percent said their assault happened in social settings, 37 percent said it happened at work, 27 percent said it happened at home, and 20 percent said it happened on the street. Nineteen percent of those sexually assaulted claimed it happened at school.
A little more than half of Americans think that coming forward with stories of sexual harassment and sexual assault will change the nation for the better while 33 percent said it will not have much impact. Only 9 percent said it will make things worse.
Douglas Schwartz, director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, conducted the survey with the help of Tim Malloy, its assistant director. Malloy tells Yahoo Lifestyle this was the first poll of its kind that the school has ever done, but the current state of affairs called for it.
“There was an avalanche of accusations and firings and scandals in the political arena as well as business and media. We watched the headlines,” he said. “We poll on the trends and what we see going on, and people were talking about it.”
During the poll’s timeframe, sexual misconduct dominated the national conversation: NBC fired Matt Lauer after sexual assault allegations, and Rep. John Conyers was under pressure to resign for sexual harassment allegations as well. Sen. Al Franken was called on to resign, Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore disputed claims about his contact with nine teenage women, and producer Russell Simmons stepped down, among others. The #MeToo movement dominated much of the national conversation.
Malloy explains that to eliminate potential bias or swaying questions, he and a team of five come up with unbiased questions and read them off to participants as written. Usually 25-30 percent of the people called will respond, he explained, but these days, things are different.
“In this volatile political atmosphere, people are more willing to say what they think,” he said. “You don’t get as many hang-ups as you used to.”
Malloy says neither the president nor the White House have contacted them about the poll. It remains to be seen if those 70 percent of Americans will be heard.
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