A national poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports on December 19-21 suggests a near supermajority of Americans believe the U.S. Congress should investigate the Federal Bureau of Investigation over allegations that it orchestrated censorship of information on social media platforms.
The poll, leveraging national telephone and online surveys of 900 individuals, extrapolated that 63% of likely voters in the United States support the idea.
Only 22% of participants responded that they did not support a congressional investigation, while 15% said they were unsure.
Rasmussen also asked participants to gauge their opinions of the FBI. Fifty percent responded that they had a somewhat or very favorable view of the federal law enforcement agency, while 46% responded that they had a somewhat or very unfavorable view.
Another 5% responded that they were unsure.
The polling company also asked participants how likely it was that the FBI “encouraged social media sites … to suppress, silence, or reduce the reach of certain political speech and speakers.”
Sixty-three percent responded that they believed it was somewhat or very likely, while only 27% responded that they believed it was not very or not at all likely. Eleven percent answered that they were unsure.
Participants were also asked whether they agreed with the following statement: “There is ‘a group of politicized thugs at the top of the FBI who are using the FBI … as Joe Biden’s personal Gestapo.'”
The quote originated with a former adviser to Trump, Roger Stone, after the August raid of the former president’s private residence in Mar-a-Lago.
Fifty-three percent of participants strongly or somewhat agreed with Stone’s assertion, while 38% disagreed, and 9% responded that they were unsure.
Rasmussen first tested Stone’s statement in a poll of 1,000 individuals one week after the raid and produced similar results as the most recent test: 53% agreed, 36% disagreed, and 11% were unsure at the time.
A review of the crosstabs of the poll reveals that while 74% of self-identified Democrat respondents held a favorable opinion of the FBI, only 34% of Republicans and 40% of unaffiliated voters felt the same.
Conversely, 40% of Republicans, 28% of unaffiliated voters, and 10% of Democrats responded that they have a very unfavorable view of the FBI.
The results showed slightly more bipartisan consensus of opinion on whether the FBI meddled with social media platforms to censor information, with 76% of Republicans and 52% of Democrats answering that it was somewhat or very likely.
The poll reflects a 95% level of confidence in its findings and contains a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
