American Public Split on Legitimacy of Wiretapping U.S. Citizens Without Court Warrants ― But Strongly Polarized By Political Party

The American public is more or less equally divided, but strongly polarized by political party, on the issue of wiretapping U.S. citizens without court authorization. The slender 45 to 42 percent plurality of U.S. adults who think President Bush’s authorization of the wiretapping was not a legitimate use of his power is not a statistically significant difference. While the public is more or less equally divided, the country is politically polarized on this issue, as on many others. Republicans believe, by a 76 to 12 percent majority that this was a legitimate use of the president’s power, while a 68 to 20 percent majority of Democrats think it was not a legitimate use. Independents tend to agree with Democrats; a 53 to 33 percent majority thinks it was not a legitimate use of the president’s power.

These are some of the results of a Harris Poll of 2,985 U.S. adults surveyed online between January 12 and 17, 2006 by Harris Interactive^®.

While the public is almost equally divided on the legitimacy of the president’s actions, a clear 49 to 32 percent plurality thinks The New York Times was right to run the story of the unauthorized wiretaps. Here again, the public is polarized with 69 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of Independents approving of what The New York Times did, and a 59 percent majority of Republicans disapproving.

Other findings of this survey include:

• A modest 45 to 39 percent plurality of the public, including 78 percent of Republicans and 24 percent of Democrats, thinks the White House was right to ask The New York Times to hold this story.
• While 49 percent believe that The New York Times was right to run the story, 33 percent of all adults think The Times should have ran it immediately, while 11 percent think they were right to hold it.

This survey is yet another example of how strongly polarized the country has become; with most Republicans supporting, and most Democrats opposing, almost everything controversial that the president says or does.

"In the past few weeks the country has learned that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to issue wiretaps on U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism on overseas calls without court authorization. How legitimate a use of the President’s power is this?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

"The New York Times held off on printing the story for over a year after meeting with the White House. Was it right or wrong for The New York Times to run this story at all?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

"A reporter for The New York Times discovered the existence of this authorization some time ago. The White House specifically asked The New York Times not to run the story due to national security concerns. Was the White House right or wrong to initially ask The New York Times to hold this story?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

"Do you think The New York Times should have run this story immediately, or do you think The New York Times was right to hold off for over a year?"

Base: Those who say The New York Times was right to run the story

* All adults who say The New York Times was right to run the story but are not sure if they should have run it immediately or held off for over a year.

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between January 12 and 17, 2006 among 2,985 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Sampling error for the various sub-samples listed in the tables above is higher and varies. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (nonresponse), question wording and question order, and weighting. It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online sample was not a probability sample.

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Q550, Q555, Q560, Q565