November 02, 2015
Americans are fed up with political correctness - but less so when that means agreeing with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump - according to a new poll.
The survey, conducted by New Jersey's Fairleigh Dickinson University and released on Friday, found that 68 percent of respondents agreed that a "big problem this country has is being politically correct."
Yet, when that statement was prefaced with Trump's response to a question from the first GOP debate, that number dropped.
During that first debate, Trump was pressed by Fox News host Megyn Kelly on several comments he made concerning the appearance of women. He shot back, saying political correctness was a "big problem."
Of respondents from the poll who were told Trump's statement and asked the same question, 53 percent agreed it was a large issue.
Overall, Republicans overwhelmingly thought it was more of a problem. Of those not given the Trump answer, 81 percent agreed it was an issue, and nearly the same amount (80 percent) agreed when given the question with it.
For Democrats, Trump made a huge difference: 62 percent thought it was a big problem without his statement, yet only 36 percent thought so when given it.
That's the same case with independents. The number drops from 68 percent to 47 percent when given the Trump answer.
The survey polled 1,026 adults across the country and had a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.
