On Tuesday Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling released results of a survey conducted May 12-14 (summarized here, with a PDF of the details here). This was after President Trump fired FBI Director Comey but before we learned that Trump gave highly classified information to the Russians and reportedly pressured Comey to drop the Flynn investigation. Some notable findings:

American voters surveyed would prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress by 49 to 38 percent. Among voters who say they’re “very excited” about voting in 2018, the split is 61-34. However, next year’s election is a long way off, gerrymandering (combined with the concentration of Democrats in cities) gives the GOP an advantage in the House, and of the third of the senators up for election then, there happen to be a lot more Democrats running in states that went for Trump than Republicans in states that went for Clinton, so this is far from a guarantee that control of Congress will switch.

Only 29 percent of voters now favor repealing Obamacare. A large majority of 64 percent want to keep it with possible minor fixes.

By 62 to 38 percent those surveyed support for an independent investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 election. A slight plurality, 43 to 38 percent, think Trump’s campaign was colluding with the Russians, but if collusion is proved, a solid 54 to 34 majority think he should resign.

There’s 51 to 41 percent agreement that Trump is a “liar,” and a slightly larger 55 percent consider him dishonest versus just 38 percent who disagree.

By 62 to 29 percent they want Trump to release his tax returns, and a 61-28 majority favor making it a legal requirement for presidential candidates.

Even before news of the past few days support for Trump’s impeachment was at 48-41 (favor-oppose), and only 43 percent of voters thought it likely that he would serve a full term.

By 49 to 41 percent, voters wish Hillary Clinton was president, and by 55 to 39 they wish President Obama was still in office. (Seth Meyers said one of those who didn’t was Barack Obama.)

The next presidential election is a long way off, but voters would prefer every hypothetical candidate over Trump by at least 5 percentage points: Joe Biden (54-40), Bernie Sanders (52-39), Elizabeth Warren (49-39), Al Franken (46-38), Cory Booker (46-39), and even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (42-37).

Remember, these results were from before Trump was reported to have committed obstruction of justice by trying to get Comey to drop the Flynn investigation, and before he was reported to have passed on top-secret intelligence to the Russians without first consulting with U.S. intelligence agencies about the potential harm of doing so (which is apparently pretty serious).

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