84 percent support special counsel in Biden documents case: survey

Most Americans in a new survey support the appointment of a special counsel to look into classified documents from President Biden’s time as vice president discovered at a Washington, D.C., office he previously used and at his Delaware home.

The CNN survey found 84 percent of Americans back Attorney General Merrick Garland’s move to appoint Robert Hur as special counsel, with 80 percent of Democrats and 88 percent of Republicans expressing approval.

Almost as many respondents — 82 percent — say they approve of Garland’s appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee classified documents found last year at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and club in Florida.

Just 43 percent said they approved of the Biden administration’s handling of the situation. Broken down by party, nearly three-quarters of Democrats approve, while more than 8 in 10 Republicans disapprove.

More than two-thirds overall — 67 percent — said they considered the matter at least somewhat serious.

Forty-four percent of respondents said they thought Biden had “done something unethical, but not illegal,” while 37 percent said they thought he broke the law and 18 percent said he did nothing wrong.

In Trump’s case, a majority of respondents — 52 percent — said they think the former president had done something illegal.

Biden’s case has drawn scrutiny from many on the right who call the sitting president hypocritical for at one point calling Trump’s document handling “irresponsible.”

The CNN survey was notably conducted Jan. 19-22, with some respondents polled before news broke of additional documents found at Biden’s Delaware home and before classified documents were found at the Indiana home of Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence.

The CNN poll, conducted by SSRS, surveyed 1,004 U.S. adults and had a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points.

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