The majority of American voters now believe that the taxpayer-funded FBI has become Democrat President Joe Biden’s “personal Gestapo,” according to a new poll.
The Rasmussen poll reveals that 53% of voters now agree with the statement that 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 Gestapo was Nazi Germany’s official secret police.
The sentiment resonates with Republicans in particular.
76% of GOP voters agreed with the statement.
Democrats, on the other hand, mainly (57%) disagree.
Among those affiliated with either party, 49% agree with the characterization of the FBI as President Joe Biden’s “personal Gestapo” and 38% disagree.
The statement was originally made by Roger Stone, an adviser to former President Donald Trump.
He made the remark in a November 28, 2021 interview on John Catsimatidis’ WABC 770 AM radio show.
In the interview, Stone criticized both the FBI’s raid on the home of James O’Keefe and what he argued was “harassment” by the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol Hill protests.
Project Veritas founder O’Keefe was raided as part of an investigation into reports of a stolen diary belonging to Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley.
Stone, himself, was subject to a pre-dawn FBI raid executed by over a dozen special agents in tactical gear in January 2019.
Rasmussen Reports conducted its survey of 1,000 U.S. likely voters on August 15 and 16, one week after the FBI raided the 45th president’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
In the survey, questioners asked: “Did the FBI’s recent raid on the Florida home of former President Donald Trump make you trust the FBI more or trust the FBI less?
“Or did the Trump raid not make much difference in your trust in the FBI?”
While half of Democrat respondents said the Mar-a-Lago raid made them trust the FBI more, 70% of Republicans responded that the raid made them trust the FBI less.
Nearly half (46%) of unaffiliated voters said the raid made them trust the FBI less, whereas only 18% said it improved their trust in the agency.
Perceived differences in treatment by the FBI of persons of interest, depending on their party affiliation, may be a factor in this skew.
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) raised the different approaches taken to Trump and Hunter Biden.
President Trump does nothing wrong. Has his house raided by the FBI.
Hunter Biden does everything wrong. And the FBI tries to shut down the case.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) August 10, 2022
Concerning the general approval of the FBI, 75% of Democrats hold a favorable opinion of the bureau.
That’s an increase in support by 12 points since December 2021.
Only 30% of Republicans hold a favorable impression of the FBI.
FBI Director Christopher Wray is regarded by 15% of voters to be better than those in the job before him and is thought to be worst than most of his predecessors by twice as many voters (30%).
Fox News’s Tucker Carlson recently suggested that beyond its raid on Mar-a-Lago, the FBI is undermining the public’s trust elsewhere, citing the bureau’s alleged role in the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot.
This week, thanks to testimony and cross-examination in the re-trial, we're getting the actual story of how the FBI engineered the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot. https://t.co/cAPFBhZisR pic.twitter.com/DV0tqZlvGN
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 17, 2022
