In a new national survey of Americans conducted by INSIDER, 35% of respondents said a law protecting FBI Director Robert Mueller and his team of investigators is "extremely important," 18% said "very important," and 21% said "somewhat important."
In contrast, 10% said a law, which multiple lawmakers have already crafted, would be "not so important" and 16% responded "not at all important."
The "extremely important" desire for a law to protect Mueller from some sort of scenario in which Trump tries to fire him or dismantle the special counsel is a much higher priority among respondents who identified as liberal steadily increasing among those who are "slightly," "moderately," and "very" liberal.
On the other end of the spectrum, 52% of those identifying as "very conservative" described the Mueller protection efforts as "not at all important."
The survey was conducted December 15 and 16 from 1,164 respondents.
The polling shows a different mood among Americans than that of members of Congress, who have largely avoided addressing the desire from Democrats and a handful of Senate Republicans who have sought to put barriers in place to protect the special counsel.
Shortly after Sessions departed the administration in November, retiring Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican, threatened to block confirmation of any judicial nominees in committee unless Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell brought the Special Counsel Protection Act to the floor for a vote.
So far, Flake has made good on his promise, but he will be replaced in January. And while Democrats will have taken back the majority in the House in the new year, Senate Republican leaders still seem unmotivated to move forward with any bill aimed at protecting Mueller.
SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Total 1,136 respondents, margin of error plus or minus 2.97 percentage points with 95% confidence level.
