Brendan Nyhan

Pew: Republicans want more birther coverage

Another day, another disturbing birther poll. A new Pew poll finds that 79% of Americans have heard at least a little about the false claim that Barack Obama was not born in this country. Within this group, a staggering 39% of Republicans (as well as 30% of independents and 14% of Democrats) think there has been too little coverage of the issue in the media. Only 26% of Republicans think there has been too much coverage; 27% say there has been the right amount and 8% said they didn’t know.

Here’s the full table with partisan crosstabs:

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Previous polls have shown that 28% of Republicans and 41% of Virginia Republicans think Obama is not a citizen of this country.