A majority of Democrats support a congressional investigation into the classified documents found at President Biden’s home and private office, according to a new poll, which comes as House Republicans and the Department of Justice have already announced probes into the records.
Fifty-two percent of Democrats and 64 percent of respondents in general said they would approve a congressional investigation, according to a Yahoo News-YouGov poll this week.
The survey found that there is strong support for lawmakers’ inquiry from independents and Republicans as well, with 67 percent and 84 percent in favor, respectively.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced last week that he had appointed a special counsel to investigate Biden’s document handling. House Republicans have also opened up an inquiry of their own.
A number of Democratic lawmakers have also said they support the Justice Department’s decision.
The news of Biden’s classified documents has presented former President Trump a possible political lifeline as he continues to be scrutinized for his handling of classified information that resulted in last year’s FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago residence. Trump and other Republicans have been quick to pounce on the discovery of Biden’s classified documents, while Democrats point out that the FBI’s Florida search came after multiple attempts to recover the records were stymied by Trump and his team.
The new survey, which polled 1,538 adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, found that a majority of respondents thought that Biden’s situation was either less serious than Trump’s — at 31 percent — or equally as serious, which 32 percent of people believed.
The survey found that a majority of respondents would approve a number of congressional investigations, including looking into the security of the southern border, investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and oversight of the Justice Department and FBI and their ongoing investigation into Trump.