RIGHT-WINGERS EMBRACE THE RESPONSES TO A TERRIBLY WORDED POLL QUESTION

Rush Limbaugh said this on the air today:

CNN has a new poll out, and they’re burying it. In their poll, Trump’s approval rating has hit an all-time high in the CNN poll, 43%. But there’s something else that they’re burying that they’re not reporting, and it’s this. In the CNN poll that came out yesterday, 69% want an investigation into Obama’s Department of Justice spying.

Look at that: 70% of the American people want this investigation to take place. I wanted to make sure that you knew because CNN is burying that result from their poll.

On his website, he links to a PJ Media story that makes the same assertion:

CNN Poll: Overwhelming Majority Want Investigation into Obama DOJ Spying on Trump

... the most interesting part of the [poll] is that “69% think Congress ought to investigate the origins of the Justice Department's inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election, including 76% of Democrats, 69% of independents and 62% of Republicans.” In other words, an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that the Obama Justice Department’s actions in 2016 should be investigated. The American people want answers about the Steele dossier, the FISA court approval of the wiretap, everything. What did Obama know, and when did he know it? Why did the Obama administration not do more to prevent or stop Russian cyber attacks?

Someone at SSRS, CNN's pollster, really did the wingnuts a solid with this question, because I'm sure the majority of respondents -- or at least the majority of respondents who don't consume massive amounts of right-wing media -- have no idea what it actually meant. It's the middle question here:

Here are some things that Congress could do in response to the findings of Mueller’s investigation. For each one, please tell me if you think Congress should or should not take that action.

The first one is this:

Investigate whether Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice during the course of the Mueller investigation

Everyone can understand that, and 58% of respondents say that such a congressional investigation should happen.

The third one is this:

Pursue legal action to obtain access to the full, unredacted version of Mueller’s report and its underlying evidence

Also unambiguous, and 61% want it to happen.

Now here's the middle one:

Investigate the origins of the Justice Department’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election which led to Mueller’s investigation

If you're in the right-wing fever swamps, this has a profound meaning for you. The dossier! The Strzok-Page texts! The FISA warrants! But if you're not, it sounds vaguely like "Oh, yes, we should get to the bottom of what happened in Russiagate." How the investigation started is a non-story except on the right. Why on earth would 76% of Democrats support the real witch hunt suggested by this question? (Only 62% of Republicans support it, which suggests that 38% of them aren't getting their minimum daily requirements of Fox and Rush.) The Democrats in favor can't possibly understand what the question means.

I'd bet serious money that a well-phrased poll question on the subject would get a completely different response. But CNN's pollster approved this terrible question instead.

And why? Because, someone there wanted to make right-wingers happy with a poll result that doesn't reflect reality, but does reflect the view inside the right-wing bubble. Well, you got what you wanted, for all the good it will do the right.