Most Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton now want to see President-elect Donald Trump’s opponents doing whatever it takes to work against him, even if it means defying political norms, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds.
A 54 percent majority of Clinton voters say that Trump’s opponents should do everything they can to oppose his policies, while another 31 percent say it’s more important for them to respect the current norms of the American political system. The remaining 15 percent aren’t sure.
Self-described liberals who voted for Clinton say by a 41-point margin that the opposition should do everything they can. Self-described moderates who supported the Democratic nominee are close to evenly split, saying by a 3-point margin that respecting norms is more important.
Despite their preference for strong opposition, two-thirds of Clinton voters say that President Barack Obama should try to make Trump’s transition into the White House as smooth as possible, with just 20 percent saying that he shouldn’t try to do so.
They’re evenly divided on how aggressively Obama should denounce Trump before Inauguration Day, with 42 percent saying Obama should mostly try to work with Trump on issues they agree about, and 40 percent that he should focus on speaking out against Trump on issues they disagree on.
After Obama leaves office, though, most Clinton voters think he should take on a more adversarial role. Fifty percent say that once he’s no longer president, Obama should focus on speaking out against Trump, with just 30 percent saying he should try to work with his successor.
In Obama’s final press conference of 2016, he pledged to make himself available to Trump “as issues come up,” and reiterated his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition process.
“I think they would be the first to acknowledge that we have done everything we can to make sure that they are successful, as I promised, and that will continue,” he said.
Overall, a 38 percent plurality of all Americans say Obama is currently doing enough to help Trump during the transition period, with 26 percent saying that Obama is not doing enough, and 10 percent that he is doing too much.
Sixty-two percent of Americans say that Obama should focus on trying to work with Trump during the remainder of the transition period, and 54 percent that he should continue to do so once Trump has replaced him as president.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted Dec. 17-19 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls.You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov’s nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. More details on the polls’ methodology are available here.
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