How big is the GOP's Trump-can-shoot-a-guy-on-Fifth-Avenue caucus?

[DonViejo]

By Aaron Blake
September 2 at 8:31 AM

Matthew Miller's reaction to the new Washington Post-ABC News poll Friday caught my eye. The poll showed just 18 percent of Americans believed President Trump should pardon Paul Manafort.

-snip-

Link to tweet

-snip-

Which got me thinking: How big is the "shoot someone on Fifth Avenue" caucus in America?

The answer I arrived at as anywhere from 1 in 8 to 1 in 5 Americans -- between 12 and 20 percent, around where Miller pegged it. These are the people who seem prepared to justify and/or forgive pretty much anything Trump has done or even has threatened to do. It represents half or less of Trump supporters.

Here's how I arrived at that number.

The Post-ABC poll shows 53 percent of American adults strongly disapprove of Trump, while 24 percent strongly approve. Those numbers are slightly worse for Trump than other recent polls, but it's usually somewhere around 2-to-1 strong-disapprove to strong-approve. Generally, about a quarter of Americans strongly approve of Trump.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/02/how-many-republicans-would-actually-stick-by-trump-if-he-shot-guy-fifth-avenue

[JHB]

1. It' also more -- and less -- complex than that...

There's the main SSO5A Caucus who would entusiastically cheer him for doing so, and a larger SSO5A portion who would blink, but not balk. Their initial reaction may be negative, but once their "trusted sources" in conservative media start feeding them excuses, they'll fall in line as usual.

[Cary]

2. I still go with Werner Twertzog:

Dear America: You are waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that 1/3 of your people would kill another 1/3, while 1/3 watches.

 Werner Twertzog

[Me.]

3. I Heard One Of The 'Pundits'

either Steve Schmidt or Rick Wilson say it was 25% of the Republican Party

[lark]

4. Doesn't add up.

If only 18% of the general population is highly supportive and 85% of Dems totally hate the day he was born, that means Repugs approve of him by a far greater amount than 25%.