Presidential War Powers - What Voters Think

Harvard Harris Poll Debrief with Mark Penn and Bob Cusack

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The latest Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll surveyed 2,592 voters from February 26-28, 2020.
We explored the concept of presidential war powers, taking the public's temperature on unilateral strikes against foreign threats without seeking Congressional approval.
On the 2020 horserace, we asked Democrats about candidate characteristics and where each candidate is strongest (table here). Among Democrats, Sanders and Biden are seen as the strongest overall candidates to compete against Trump.
The poll ran as the coronavirus market sell-off began, and at the time voters remained bullish about the state of the economy even though early warning signs of the anxieties of coronavirus were starting to show.
We saw a 6 point jump in the number of voters who expected a recession (from 31% in January to 37% in late February) and while 70 percent of voters said the economy was strong, that measure was also down 4 points month over month.
Trump approval at the onset of the correction remained in the higher range for him at forty-seven percent, but with 37% of voters saying they own publicly traded stock outside of their retirement accounts, expect the anxiety to start impacting the political landscape.
Overall, voters are split on whether the US will be able to contain coronavirus (52% 'no' / 48% 'yes') and 82 percent support the quarantine of small or large US cities if the virus hits some areas hard. 79% also support halting immigration to the US if the virus becomes a pandemic.
Finally, a majority of voters say they believe there is evidence Russia is trying to interfere in the 2020 election. The poll also features fresh polling on the Iran nuclear deal, sanctuary cities, the public charge immigration rule, and Trump’s comments on DOJ cases.