The country is, once again, divided along partisan lines, this time over the U.S. joining Israel in military strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
Such was the case on Capitol Hill this week as congressional Democrats railed against the ‘unconstitutionality’ of President Donald Trump ordering attacks on three nuclear sites in Iran, while most Republican lawmakers celebrated his bold move to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear capability.
Forty-two percent of voters support the U.S. strikes against Iran, while 51% oppose them, according to the Quinnipiac University poll, conducted between June 22-24 in the days after the U.S. strikes on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan in Iran.
The results were split along party lines, with 81% of Republicans supporting the strikes compared to 75% of Democrats opposing them. Sixty percent of independents opposed the strikes, while 35% supported them.
‘No ambivalence from Republicans on the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites. By a large margin, GOP voters give full-throated support to the mission,’ Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement.
Half of voters, at 50%, think the strikes would make Americans less safe, while 42% said they would make Americans safer.
Results were once again split along party lines. Seventy-six percent of Democrats said striking Iran’s nuclear program would make Americans less safe, while 80% of Republicans said it would make Americans safer.
According to the poll, nearly 8 in 10 voters are either very concerned, 44%, or somewhat concerned, 34%, about the U.S. getting dragged into war with Iran. Only 22% of voters are not concerned.
‘American voters, most of whom are not supportive of the country joining in the Israel-Iran conflict, are extremely troubled by the possibility that involvement could metastasize and draw the U.S. into a direct war with Iran,’ pollster Malloy said.
Forty-two percent of voters think the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, while 45% say support for Israel is about right. Only 5% say the U.S. is not supportive enough.
The percentage of voters calling the U.S. too supportive of Israel is at an all-time high since Quinnipiac University first posed the question to registered voters in January 2017. The percentage of voters calling the U.S. not supportive enough is an all-time low since then, the poll reveals.
Half of voters, 50%, support Israel’s military strikes against nuclear and military sites inside Iran, while 40% oppose them. Eighty percent of Republicans support them, while 60% of Democrats do not.
The Quinnipiac University Poll included 979 self-identified registered voters nationwide who were surveyed from June 22-24, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Trump announced the U.S. successfully struck Iran’s nuclear sites Saturday night. Israel had launched a series of coordinated attacks on Iran the previous week, which Iran had retaliated against, prompting the countries to exchange strikes. After the U.S. struck Iran, the Islamist country launched retaliatory attacks on a U.S. air base in Qatar.
The president indicated a ceasefire between Israel and Iran earlier this week, touting a successful mission to hinder Iran’s nuclear sites without engaging the U.S. in an escalatory Middle East conflict.