Republicans more likely to side with Patriots on 'Deflategate'

Do you believe the New England Patriots when they say they didn’t have anything to do with the underinflated balls used in the AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts?

A new poll shows it may depend on which political party you align yourself with.

Public Policy Polling asked 602 Americans to weigh in on the issue. Overall, 41 percent of those polled said they believe the Patriots cheated with Deflategate. But when broken down along party lines, it’s a slightly different story.

Republicans are much more likely to cut the team some slack.

Of those polled, 36 percent of Republicans said they believed the team cheated, while 33 percent said they didn’t cheat.

On the Democratic side, there’s a much wider margin of disagreement. Forty-six percent of Democrats polled labeled the Patriots as cheaters, while 26 percent said they didn’t believe the Patriots cheated.

The poll had a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.