Byron York: Biggest challenge GOP has is to show the public this Hunter Biden investigation is about Joe Biden
Fox News contributor Byron York on the National Archives potentially unsealing the Burisma emails
Voters across the political spectrum believe it is important for the Justice Department to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings with foreign governments.
Recent revelations about social media companies tamping down the story in the run-up to the 2020 election have not changed voters' opinions — just as many feel it is important to investigate Hunter Biden now as they did this past August.
The latest Fox News Poll, released Thursday, also highlights a range of concerns about social media companies and declining favorability ratings for Twitter in particular.
Nearly three-quarters of voters (72%) think it is important for the Justice Department to investigate the younger Biden’s business dealings with foreign governments — unchanged from the 72% who felt that way in August. That includes majorities of Republicans (88%), independents (74%) and Democrats (54%).
POLL REVEALS SUPPORT FOR BIDEN HAS CHANGED DRASTICALLY SINCE SUMMER
In this Fox News Poll, Americans share how they really feel about President Biden's controversial son and his many business dealings. (Fox News)
Partisans disagree, however, on what investigations into Hunter Biden’s conduct will reveal. Republicans generally think Hunter Biden did something illegal in his business dealings with Ukraine and China (70%), and that President Biden committed a crime related to his son’s activities (63%). By contrast, just one-in-10 Democrats think Hunter Biden (11%) or Joe Biden (8%) did something illegal.
Overall, 39% think Hunter Biden committed a crime, 31% say he did something unethical but not illegal and 19% believe he did nothing seriously wrong.
The numbers are fairly similar for President Biden: 35% say he committed a crime, 27% think he acted unethically but not illegally and 31% feel he did nothing wrong.
In this Fox News Poll, Americans share how they really feel about President Biden's controversial son and his many business dealings.
The FBI, among other law enforcement entities, has investigated Hunter Biden for tax-related issues. Whether voters trust the FBI, however, is a complicated question. Nearly two-thirds of voters (63%) are confident in the Bureau — but that is down from 70% in September. The decline comes primarily from Republicans (47% confident now vs. 59% in September). Most Democrats (84%) and six-in-10 independents (57%) are confident in the FBI.
REPUBLICANS PLAN PROBE INTO HUNTER BIDEN’S CHINESE BUSINESS DEALS: 'ACCOUNTABILITY IS COMING'
Seven-in-10 voters (69%) think it was important for Congress to investigate the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — but views on the issue are notably partisan. Almost all Democrats (94%) think the investigations were important, compared to 71% of independents and 45% of Republicans.
In this Fox News Poll, Americans share how they really feel about President Biden's controversial son and his many business dealings and the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Fox News)
Recently, the allegations against Hunter Biden received increased scrutiny after the release of internal documents from Twitter, indicating that the social media platform had suppressed stories about content found on Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 presidential election.
Four-in-10 voters (38%) view Twitter favorably, compared to 54% with an unfavorable view. That represents a 15-point increase in unfavorable views from April 2018 (37% favorable, 39% unfavorable). Unfavorable views increased by 17 percentage points among Democrats, 11 points among Republicans and 19 points among independents.
In the same time period, views of Facebook improved slightly: from 48% favorable vs 41% unfavorable in 2018, to 52%-44% now.
Opinions of TikTok are underwater: 40% favorable, 50% unfavorable. The poll was conducted before the Senate passed a bill banning the social media app on government devices on Wednesday.
In this Fox News Poll, Americans share how they really feel about social media. (Fox News)
Views of Twitter owner Elon Musk are closely divided (44% favorable, 43% unfavorable), and highly partisan — 59% of Democrats view him unfavorably, while 64% of Republicans like him.
By an eight-point margin, voters are more likely to think Musk’s purchase of Twitter was a good thing (47%) than a bad thing (39%). This past May, when Musk’s potential purchase of the platform gained steam, 44% thought it would be a good thing and 30% bad.
One-quarter (26%) of voters have tried Twitter and decided not to use it, while the same number (26%) have a Twitter account they use. Forty-seven percent have never had an account.
Voters see a host of problems with social media. Two-thirds (66%) think disinformation posted by users is a major issue. Six-in-10 feel the same about hate speech from users (62%) and political bias from the companies themselves (60%). Half view cancel culture by users (53%) and censorship from companies (50%) as major problems.
In this Fox News Poll, Americans share how they really feel about social media. (Fox News)
For Democrats, the biggest issues are hate speech (71%) and disinformation (69%). For Republicans, the top problems are political bias from social media companies (73%), censorship (69%) and cancel culture (66%).
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More than twice as many voters think social media companies are biased against Republicans (39%) than against Democrats (16%). Three-in-10 think the companies are not biased against either party (30%).
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Conducted Dec. 9-12, under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with 1,005 registered voters nationwide who were randomly selected from a national voter file and spoke with live interviewers on both landlines and cellphones. The total sample has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Fox News’ Dana Blanton and Victoria Balara contributed to this report.
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