Poll: Large majority of Republicans back Trump summit performance

Nearly 80 percent of Republicans approve of President Trump’s performance during his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, a new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll found.

Of Republicans surveyed, 79 percent said they approved of how the president handled the joint press conference. Only 18 percent said they disapproved.

The poll found a large gap in how Democrats and Republicans viewed the event that drew major bipartisan backlash in Washington.

Respondents who identified as Democrats overwhelmingly disapproved of the Trump’s handling of the press conference with 91 percent saying they disapproved, while only 7 percent said they approved.

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Overall, the majority of Americans — 58 percent — disapproved of Trump’s handling of the joint press conference.

Trump’s responses to questions brought immense condemnation after he refused to denounce Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said Trump’s performance was an attack on U.S. intelligence agencies.

Trump later sought to clarify his remarks, saying he accepts the assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

“I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” Trump said, reading from a prepared statement on Tuesday.

“Could be other people also. A lot of people out there,” he then added.

Trump tweeted early Wednesday the “people at the higher ends of intelligence loved [his] press conference performance.”

So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki. Putin and I discussed many important subjects at our earlier meeting. We got along well which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match. Big results will come!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2018

The Axios/SurveyMonkey online poll was conducted July 16-17 among 2,100 adults living the U.S. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.