Most Americans think Russian hacking didn't change election, poll says

Though an increasingly dominant issue in the news media, most Americans don't think alleged Russian hacking of the U.S. election changed the result, according to a new poll from CNN/ORC.

A majority of respondents, 58 percent, said that the election result would have been the same, with Donald J. Trump as the winner, "regardless of the information released as a result of Russian hacking." Forty percent said the result would be different.

Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said in an interview that he thought the alleged Russian interference made Trump an illegitimate president-elect; Trump fired back at Lewis on Twitter, prompting rebuke from even some in his own party. Lewis has likewise been criticized.

Nearly 8-in-10 responded saying they have been "closely following" the reporting about Russia's alleged interference in the election, CNN reports, including 84 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of independents and 72 percent of Republicans.

Moscow's role in the election and the incoming administration's approach to handling the alleged interference have been central in the Senate confirmation hearings of many of Trump's nominees.

If these allegations were to be proven true, these attempts would be a crisis or major problem for the U.S., 65 percent of respondents said.

"As far as hacking, I think it was Russia," Trump conceded at a New York press conference last week.

Wikileaks' Julian Assange, who published tranches of leaked information on the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton campaign officials, has repeatedly maintained that Moscow was not his source.

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