A new Associated Press-NORC poll shows that voters are not happy with President Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in “foreign enrichment schemes.”
“Ethical concerns are casting a shadow over President Joe Biden as he seeks reelection amid investigations into his son Hunter and an impeachment inquiry, with a poll showing that 35% of U.S. adults believe the president himself has done something illegal,” The Associated Press reported. “An additional 33% say they think the Democratic president behaved unethically, but not illegally. And 30% say Joe Biden did nothing wrong, according to the poll.”
The results by party affiliation
The poll’s findings with respect to Democratic voters was especially noteworthy. While Democrats were naturally the most forgiving/least suspicious of Biden’s behavior, 8 percent of Democrats still said that Biden broke the law while another 32 percent of Democratic voters said that Biden acted unethically but did not break the law. So, 40 percent of Democratic voters felt Biden acted, at minimum, unethically. That’s as good as the results got for Biden. Independents and Republicans were more critical of the president’s behavior.
Among independent voters, 38 percent felt that Biden had done something illegal while another 36 percent answered that Biden had acted unethically but did not act illegally. So, amongst the independent voters that will likely prove critical to Biden’s reelection efforts, 74 percent felt Biden had acted unethically and/or illegally.
“Perhaps some AP staff will want to label this survey an “outlier” as the Washington Post recently did when the results of a Post poll disappointed its newsroom,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “But a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll found that 38% of U.S. adults—and a full 43% of independents—believe Joe Biden has done something illegal regarding Hunter Biden’s business dealings. The survey found that 25% of adults and 28% of independents regarded Joe Biden’s conduct as unethical but not illegal.”
Oversight Investigation
The House Oversight Committee, with Representative James Comer at the helm, has been leading an investigation into the Biden family’s “foreign enrichment schemes” since Republicans gained the Majority in the House last January. So far, the investigation has failed to tun up anything resembling a smoking gun of evidence linking the president to any substantial wrongdoing. The Republicans’ failure to produce meaningful evidence does not rule out the possibility that the President acted unethically, or even illegally. But the seed of doubt, that the Republican investigation is worthwhile, has certainly been planted.
Regardless, the notion that Biden was corrupt, or was doing things he shouldn’t have been doing, seems to have caught hold with the American public. Part of the blame, most likely, falls with first son Hunter Biden, whose various high-profile problems have tainted the Biden name.
To be fair to Hunter, he’s not an elected official and his shortcomings have likely been framed in the most devious and unflattering way possible. Still, Hunter is widely perceived as a black sheep problem child and his association with his father, the president, has raised questions amongst the US public.
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
