58% say Trump would have won regardless of Russian hacking

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A poll released Monday suggests 58 percent of Americans believe Donald Trump would have won the U.S. presidential election regardless of Russia's alleged interference.

If the allegations by the U.S. intelligence community are proven true, about 65 percent of Americans said the interference would be a crisis or major problem for the United States. About 56 percent of Americans said the United States should work to improve relations with Russia instead of taking a hard-line stance through economic and diplomatic means.

The CNN/ORC telephone survey was conducted from Thursday to Sunday on a random national sample of 1,000 adults and has a margin of sampling error of 3 percent.

Nearly 80 percent said they have been following news about Russia's alleged interference to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton since last year, a claim which 43 percent of people said was extremely or very likely to be true.

About 32 percent of people said the U.S. intelligence claims are somewhat likely, while 24 percent said it is unlikely the claims are true.

When divided along party lines, 74 percent of Democrats think it is extremely or very likely the claims are true, while 17 percent of Republicans believe the same.

The poll also said 40 percent of Americans approve the way Trump is handling his presidential transition. Last week, Gallup released a poll which indicated Trump's approval rating is the lowest of the four incoming presidents Gallup has surveyed since 1992.