Only Democrats tend to support Obama's decision to commute Chelsea Manning's prison sentence
In one of his last acts as President, Barack Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, a former soldier who released classified information about the conduct of the Iraq War to WikiLeaks. Manning, who had faced the longest prison sentence ever handed down to someone who leaked classified information to the press, will be released in May of this year.
The latest research from YouGov/Huffington Post shows that only 33% of Americans support Obama's decision to grant clemency to Chelsea Manning, while 47% oppose it. Nearly half of Democrats support clemency for Manning (though 28% oppose it), but both independents (45%) and most Republicans (78%) tend to oppose clemency.
WikiLeaks also played a prominent role in the 2016 election, releasing confidential e-mails from associates of Hillary Clinton. This, plus the original Iraq leaks, have left WikiLeaks with few friends in America. 27% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Wikileaks, while 42% have a negative opinion. Republicans (37%) are, however, more likely than Democrats (19%) to have a favorable opinion of the group.
