Biden’s Classified Documents: Two-Thirds of Americans Support Congressional Probe
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When it comes to the Obama-era classified documents discovered at President Biden’s home and personal office, 64 percent of U.S. adults support a congressional investigation, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
A majority of Democrats (52 percent) also support a congressional investigation, while just 16 percent of Americans and 27 percent of Democrats oppose a probe.
A set of classified records from Biden’s time as vice president were first recovered by Biden’s lawyers, according to a statement from the lawyers, on November 2 at the Penn Biden Center. The center served as Biden’s private office from 2017 to 2019, after his time as vice president came to an end. The White House Counsel’s office then searched Biden’s homes in Delaware last week and discovered two additional sets of documents with classified markings, including in a storage space in Biden’s Wilmington garage.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has opened an investigation into the alleged mishandling of documents. That investigation has the most support of any investigation House Republicans are conducting, the poll found. Support for the Biden probe is tied with support for an investigation into the security of the U.S. southern border, which 64 percent of Americans also supported. Fifty-nine percent favored an investigation into the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, 53 percent supported an investigation into the DOJ and FBI and their criminal investigations into former President Trump. Investigations into Hunter Biden and the U.S withdrawal from Afghanistan were tied, with 49 percent support.
Biden’s document scandal has drawn comparisons from both Democrats and Republicans to Trump’s own alleged mishandling of classified documents. The FBI raided Trump’s personal residence at Mar-a-Lago in August as part of an investigation into allegations that he had mishandled documents the government claimed as its property and that the National Archives say should have been delivered into their hands.
Democrats have defended Biden, arguing that the two scenarios differ in that Biden reportedly had fewer documents and quickly returned them to the National Archives upon discovery. But just 31 percent of Americans believe that Biden’s mishandling of documents was “less serious” than Trump’s, the poll found.
By contrast, 32 percent saw both situations as “equally serious,” while 21 percent believed Biden’s situation was “more serious” than Trump’s.
The poll also found shrinking support for a potential Biden 2024 run. Last month, 46 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they would prefer him to someone else as the nominee, while that number was down to 39 percent this month. Thirty-eight percent said they would prefer “someone else” this month, up one percentage point from the month prior. The number of Democrats and Democratic leaners who said they’re “not sure” increased by seven percentage points from the month prior.
The poll was conducted between January 12 and January 16 among a pool of 1,538 U.S. adults.
