A majority of American voters now agree the FBI is “Biden’s Gestapo” after the controversial raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, polls show
- Trump’s allies have compared the FBI to the Gestapo or the Stasi
- A new poll found the idea leaked out to American voters
- Rasmussen Reports asked 1,000 lively voters if they agreed with Roger Stone’s claim that the FBI had become President Joe Biden’s “personal Gestapo.”
- About 53 percent agreed – including 34 percent who totally agreed
- It comes as some moderate Republicans amid a spate of threats and ugly insults are urging their supporters not to abuse the FBI’s rank and file
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s home has damaged the agency’s standing among Republican and independent voters, according to a new poll that found a majority agree with the idea that it has become “Biden’s Gestapo.”
The Mar-a-Lago search has heartened Trump supporters and sparked a wave of donations to the former president’s political organizations.
And close allies, including Steve Bannon, have used public platforms to compare the FBI to Hitler’s Gestapo or East Germany’s brutal secret police, the Stasi.
In a new poll, Rasmussen Reports asked 1000 likely voters if they agreed with Trump loyalist Roger Stone, who last year said the FBI had become President Joe Biden’s “personal Gestapo.”
At the time, around 46 percent of voters agreed with this assessment.
Now about 53 percent of voters agree — including 34 percent who explicitly agree.
The numbers split along party lines. 76 percent of Republicans agree with Stone, while 57 percent of Democrats disagree.
A new poll shows a majority of likely voters agree with the claim that the FBI has become President Joe Biden’s “personal Gestapo” after the Mar-a-Lago raid
A property receipt unsealed after last Monday’s raid showed that the FBI had seized 11 sets of classified documents as part of its investigation into the presidential files
Trump fans rallied around his Mar-a-Lago resort after the raid to show their support
Trump allies have accused President Joe Biden and his administration of politicizing the Justice Department and FBI in a bid to throw the former president out of the 2024 race
The FBI has been the target of Republican attacks since last Monday’s raid to seize White House documents in Mar-a-Lago.
A later unsealed property receipt showed that the FBI had seized 11 sets of classified documents.
Some were marked not only as top secret, but also as “sensitive confidential information,” a category designed to protect the nation’s most important secrets.
Despite this, Trump and his allies have blasted the investigation, accusing the administration of using all of its resources to prevent him from running again in 2024.
For example, Sebastian Gorka, an official in the Trump administration turned red-hot radio host, beat up the agents in the raid
“The idea that you’re an FBI agent and you’re being given this warrant to serve against President Trump, who you know is wrong, that’s a hatchet job, that’s Gestapo-Stasi tactics, and you Don’t give your badge and your gun to that senior FBI agent right away and say, Sorry, I’m not a member of the Gestapo.
“Every FBI agent in this raid swore their oath.”
After days of such rhetoric, the telephone poll of voters found that 44 percent of respondents said the crackdown reduced trust in the FBI, compared with 29 percent who said it made them trust the FBI more.
Mike Pence on Wednesday in New Hampshire urged other Republicans to stop attacking the FBI after it conducted a search of Trump’s Florida property
“Mike Pence said, ‘We’ve got to stop criticizing, we’re a law and order party,'” said Steve Bannon. “That’s what that mindless, cowardly simpleton said”
Some senior Republicans have spoken out against the flow of bile and threats against the FBI and its agents.
Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, said Republicans could hold the FBI accountable without attacking its grassroots staff.
“Our party stands with the men and women who stand on the thin blue line at the federal, state and local levels, and these attacks on the FBI must stop,” he said at an event in New Hampshire.
“Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police.”
He was slammed by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon for speaking up.
“Mike Pence said, ‘We’ve got to stop criticizing, we’re a law and order party,'” Bannon said on his War Room podcast. “That’s what that brainless, cowardly fool said.”