FBI brass seen as Biden’s ‘personal Gestapo’: Poll
Adoration of “G-men,” once celebrated in the nonpartisan war on Al Capone and organized crime and now leading the effort to round up Jan. 6 Capitol riot suspects and Trump supporters, is apparently waning.
In the latest sign of how today’s politics is dividing support for major Washington institutions, the latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows more people than not view the FBI as the punishing political arm of President Joe Biden.
Picking up on a comment from former Trump adviser Roger Stone, long caught in the wandering FBI Russia probe, the pollster found that likely voters, by a 46%-38% margin, believe “there is a group of politicized thugs at the top of the FBI who are using the FBI … as Joe Biden’s personal Gestapo.”
In discussing the Jan. 6 probe and the FBI’s investigation of whistleblower Project Veritas, Stone used that phrase.
Republicans especially feel negative about the FBI, with 64% feeling it is the president’s “Gestapo.” And 30% of Democrats agreed.
The word Gestapo generally refers to the henchmen led by Nazi Hermann Goring against Adolf Hitler's enemies.
For sure, the view hasn’t helped the image of FBI Director Christopher Wray. Said Rasmussen’s analysis, “Fifty percent of voters now believe the FBI director is influenced by the president in his decision-making, while only 26% believe Wray is truly independent of the administration, and another 25% are not sure. That’s a near-complete reversal from May 2017, when 53% believed the FBI director was truly independent and 26% thought he was influenced by the president.”
And overall, the public is divided on the FBI, with 46% having a favorable impression and 47% an unfavorable view.
Rasmussen addressed the politics of the agency and said, “President Biden’s strongest supporters have the most favorable impression of the FBI. Among voters who ‘Strongly Approve’ of Biden’s job performance as president, 86% view the FBI favorably. By comparison, among voters who ‘Strongly Disapprove’ of Biden’s performance, only 19% have a favorable impression of the FBI.”
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