Most Americans Think Russia Is Meddling in U.S. Election: Poll

Most Americans, including a majority of Republicans, believe Russia is attempting to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, according to a new poll released Friday.

Even as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attempts to downplay the possibility, 55 percent of Americans believe Russia is trying to influence the outcome of the Nov. 8 election, according to a new Reuters/IPSOS poll. Those results include 51 percent of Republicans and 65 percent of Democrats who believe Russia is trying to influence the vote.

Most Democrats, 62 percent, think Russian President Vladimir Putin backs Trump for the White House, while 48 percent of Republicans believe their nominee has the foreign leader's support. Among those who believe Russia is interfering, 71 percent said it tried to do so through the Democratic National Committee email hack that was published by WikiLeaks in July.

Earlier this month, the Obama administration publicly blamed Russia for the hacking, the content of which was leaked right before the Democratic National Convention in July.

“We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement at the time.

However, on Thursday, Putin rejected claims that Moscow was capable of influencing the election, saying, "Hysteria has been whipped up."

"It's much simpler to distract people with so-called Russian hackers, spies, and agents of influence," said Putin. "Does anyone really think that Russia could influence the American people's choice in any way? Is America a banana republic or what? America is a great power."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest dismissed Putin’s remarks as predictable and said the government stood by the allegations.

"There's nothing that President Putin had to say today that I find particularly surprising or that in any way undermines the president's confidence in the analysis that's been released by the Department of Homeland Security and the intelligence community,” said Earnest.

When asked about Trump, Putin said on Thursday that the Republican nominee deliberately uses a bombastic style to get his message across to voters who are fed up with the political elite.

"He has chosen a method to get through to voters' hearts," said Putin. "He behaves extravagantly of course, we see this, but I think there's a reason for this."

For his part, Trump has routinely said that Russia has had no part in the hacking and instead has suggested Democrats have made the whole thing up.

“It’s probably unlikely” that Russia is meddling in the election, Trump told Larry King last month. “I think maybe the Democrats are putting that out, who knows?”

The Reuters/IPSOS survey was conducted online, polling 2,008 Americans from Oct. 18 to Oct. 24. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Photo credit: Pete Souza via White House archives