Scandals

The circumstances were very different during the Clinton impeachment crisis, and so was U.S. public opinion about the push for impeachment.

In this 2014 post, we explore how Americans’ views of former president Richard Nixon shifted negative amid the Watergate scandal.

Just three-in-ten American Catholics now say the pontiff is doing a good or excellent job of addressing the sex abuse scandal.

Americans’ views of Robert Mueller's investigation – and Donald Trump’s handling of the matter – continue to grow more polarized.

Just 41% of Americans say they are very or somewhat confident that Trump will handle matters related to the special counsel investigation appropriately. Republicans and Democrats offer starkly different assessments.

Survey Report Chris Christie’s public image today is starkly different than it was a year ago.  Last January, following Christie’s visible role in Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, favorable opinions outnumbered unfavorable ones by more than two-to-one. Today, in the wake of a scandal involving highway lane closures that led to massive traffic jams in northern […]

Becoming caught up in a serious ethics scandal isn’t necessarily a career-ender for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. It turns out only about a quarter exit the political stage through resignation or retirement.  The rest choose to seek re-election despite the blot on their records—and two-thirds of them win. This scandal scorecard comes […]

Three politicians who were forced from office by scandal are currently attempting comebacks. They are trying to overcome misdeeds that put them in the top five political scandals of recent years as measured by the amount of news coverage.

Overview In a second term marked by a series of controversies and little legislative success, President Obama’s job approval rating has nonetheless remained fairly steady. Currently, 49% approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president while 43% disapprove. That is little changed from a month ago, before the NSA surveillance controversy and […]

Overview The public is divided over whether the leak of classified information about NSA phone and internet surveillance serves the public interest. But a majority says that former government contractor Edward Snowden should be criminally prosecuted. The new national survey, conducted June 12-16 by the Pew Research Center and USA TODAY among 1,512 adults, finds […]