A majority of likely 2020 voters in key swing states support President Donald Trump's recent decision to kill Iranian terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike, according to a new poll obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
While 2020 Democratic presidential contenders have largely criticized the decision to take out Soleimani, a majority of voters in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania said they backed the Trump administration's action, according to a poll conducted by the America First Action PAC, a pro-Trump organization led by Linda McMahon.
The findings are likely to serve as a boon to Trump ahead of the 2020 presidential election in November. Democratic frontrunners were quick to slam Trump for signing off on the strike, which killed Soleimani before he could orchestrate further terror strikes on American forces stationed in the Middle East.
Polls individually conducted in each of the swing states showed that by a slim majority, likely voters side with the administration.
The largest approval was found in North Carolina, the upcoming site of the 2020 Republican National Convention, where 59 percent of those surveyed said they agreed with the Soleimani killing.
Fifty-eight percent of likely voters in Georgia backed the decision, while 57.6 percent offered the same response in Pennsylvania, according to the poll. In Ohio, 51.7 percent of respondents approved of the move, while 51.2 percent of likely Florida voters said the same. Another 50 percent of likely voters in Michigan said they supported Trump's decision.
The polls were conducted separately in each state from Jan. 18-23. Around 800 to 1,000 individuals were polled in each state. The margin of error for the poll was 3.4 percent.
Kelly Sadler, a spokeswoman for American First Action PAC, told the Free Beacon that the findings appear to put the 2020 Democratic frontrunners at odds with the feelings of average Americans in swing states.
"President Trump acted decisively to deter those who kill Americans in the targeted strike against Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani," Sadler said. "The world is safer for it, and swing-state voters agree. The world's worst terrorist would still be alive and planning attacks to murder Americans if any of these 2020 Democratic candidates were president. Only in the Democratic Party is killing a brutal terrorist a debate."
A recent Gallup poll had similar findings.
In addition to Trump receiving his highest approval rating to date at 49 percent, Gallup found that 53 percent of those surveyed approved of the Soleimani strike.
Not a single leading Democratic presidential candidate expressed support for the Soleimani killing, despite evidence the Iranian general and his terror proxies were planning operations against American forces.
Current frontrunner Bernie Sanders expressed opposition to the killing.
"You cannot go around saying ‘you’re a bad guy, we’re going to assassinate you’ ... you’re opening the door to international anarchy that every government in the world will be subjected to attacks and assassination," Sanders said during the Feb. 7 Democratic debate.
Former vice president Joe Biden and former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg also came out against Trump's actions in the debate.
"In the situation that we saw with President Trump's decision, there is no evidence that that made our country safer," Buttigieg said.
"The reason I wouldn't have ordered the strike is there's no evidence yet of imminent threat that was going to come from him," Biden said.