American opinion is shifting against the actions of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, according to the results of a newly released poll,
reports the Huffington Post.
But the poll shows sharply divided opinions about Snowden's actions.
The HuffPost/YouGov Poll shows that 38 percent of Americans believe Snowden did the wrong thing when he released classified documents about U.S. surveillance programs, while 33 percent said he did the right thing.
Twenty-nine percent said they were unsure about Snowden's actions.
This is a slight shift from the results of a HuffPost/YouGov poll taken in the days following Snowden’s move, when 38 percent said he did the right thing and only 35 percent said he did the wrong thing.
The biggest change in opinion has occurred among Republicans.
In the current poll, GOP members said they disagreed with Snowden’s decision by a 44 percent to 29 percent margin whereas in the previous poll, they were divided 37 percent to 37 percent.
The views of Democrats and independents remained fairly constant when comparing the results of both polls.
In the new poll, Democrats said Snowden was wrong by a 46 percent to 26 percent margin, while independents said that he did the right thing by a 40 percent to 28 percent margin.
Neither of those margins showed any meaningful change from the previous poll.
An overwhelming numbers of those polled said Snowden should be brought to trial for his actions, with 48 percent in favor of prosecution, while 33 percent were opposed.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted July 1-2 among 1,000 adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.
Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.
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