'Hung jury': A look at Trump's approval rating since the release of the Mueller report

WASHINGTON – Special counsel Robert Mueller's long-awaited report from his two-year investigation into a potential conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government does not appear to have moved the needle much with voters. 

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll published Monday, which was conducted after the release of the redacted report, found President Donald Trump's approval rating at 46%, three percentage points higher than in the previous poll. But Trump has fluctuated between 43 and 47% in NBC/WSJ polls since June 2018, indicating the report has not changed many voters' minds either way. 

And positive economic data is also likely helping to buoy the president's numbers. 

Trump had a 46% approval rating in a Gallup poll released Friday, the highest he has performed with that polling outfit since taking office. But his approval had already climbed to 45% in a Gallup poll in April that was conducted prior to the report's release.

In the RealClearPolitics polling average, Trump's approval rating has gone up about one percentage point to 44% since the report's release. But his RCP average has stayed within the 40-45% range since January 2018. 

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The report "has done very little to shake Americans out of their partisan viewpoints," Republican pollster Micah Roberts, who helped conduct the survey, told NBC News.  

"The American public has reached a hung jury," Democratic pollster Peter Hart told NBC. "Not innocent, not guilty, and they haven’t reached a consensus." 

Mueller concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in a "sweeping and systematic" effort to help get Trump elected but did not conclude Trump or his campaign conspired with the Russians. 

"The Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts," Mueller said. But he "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated" with the Russians. 

Eighty-two percent of respondents said they had consumed news coverage of Mueller's report. When asked if they thought Trump had been truthful regarding the investigation and Russian election interference, 37% said that he had, while 60% said they thought he had not.

Twenty-nine percent said Mueller's report had cleared Trump of wrongdoing, while 42% said it did not clear Trump and 29% said they weren't sure. 

The number of voters for and against impeachment also appeared unchanged by the report. In March, 16% of voters said Congress has enough evidence to begin impeachment proceedings, 33% said Congress should continue investigating and 47% said Congress should let the president finish his term. After the report, those numbers were 17%, 32% and 48%. 

The poll also found that enthusiasm for the 2020 election is very high among all voters. 

When asked to rank their interest in the election on a 10-point scale, 75% of registered Republicans were highly interested and gave an answer of 9 or 10, while 73% of Democrats answered with a 9 or 10. 

Overall, 69% of registered voters ranked their interest as a 9 or 10 compared with 60% at this point in the 2016 election cycle.  

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Among the declared 2020 candidates, Trump had the most voters who said they were "enthusiastic" to vote for him at 25%, followed by 17% who said they were enthusiastic to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden. 

But Biden's overall favorables were better than Trump's, who generated more unfavorable responses from voters than Biden. 

Forty-seven percent of registered voters were either "enthusiastic" or "comfortable" voting for Biden, while 41% said they were "enthusiastic" or "comfortable" voting for Trump. And 49% said they were "very uncomfortable" voting for Trump, compared with 24% who said the same of Biden. 

Biden had an edge over the rest of the 2020 field among registered voters who plan to vote in the Democratic primary. Seventy percent were either "enthusiastic" or "comfortable" voting for Biden. The next closest candidate was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders who came in at 62%, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

In what could be a positive sign for Democrats, voters ranked health care as the most important issue for them. At this time in the 2016 election cycle, they put jobs and the economy at the top. On the other hand. immigration and border security climbed significantly as a concern among voters, becoming the number two issue when it had been sixth in April 2015. 

The poll was conducted from April 28 to  May 1 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3%,