"A Group of Politicized Thugs": Here's What Americans Really Think of the FBI

Many Americans aren’t at all happy with the FBI right now, particularly how it has been run by the Biden Administration and the sort of activities it has engaged in at the behest of the Biden regime, or at least how it has been perceived as acting under Biden.

Rasmussen found as much in a poll asking voters if they saw it as “a group of politicized thugs” used as Biden’s “personal Gestapo”. The shocking result was that nearly half of Americans view it as such, with almost two thirds of GOP voters and even almost a third of Democrat voters viewing it that way. Independents were about evenly split. Rasmussen announced that in a tweet, saying:

Flashback: “Do you agree or disagree with this statement: There is “a group of politicized thugs at the top of the FBI who are using the FBI … as Joe Biden‘s personal Gestapo?””

– Agree –
DEM: 30%
IND: 47%
GOP: 64%
All Voters: 46%

That tweet was a quote-tweet flashback to an earlier, January tweet in which Rasmussen first announced the results of the survey, saying “Fewer voters now trust the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and many believe the agency is acting as President Joe Biden’s “personal Gestapo.”’

The article cited by Rasmussen claims that, based on a survey of 1000 likely American voters:

Fewer voters now trust the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and many believe the agency is acting as President Joe Biden’s “personal Gestapo.”

A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports finds that 46% of Likely U.S. voters have a favorable impression of the FBI, including 15% who have a Very Favorable view of the agency. That’s down from May 2020, when 60% had a favorable impression of the FBI. Forty-seven percent (47%) now view the FBI unfavorably, including 26% who have a Very Unfavorable impression.

The four questions asked to get those results were:

1* Do you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable impression of the FBI?

2* Is Christopher Wray a better or worse FBI director than most of those who held the job before him? Or is his performance about the same?

3* Is the FBI director influenced by the president in his decision-making, or is he truly independent of the administration?

4* Do you agree or disagree with this statement: 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 reason for the results, particularly among Republicans, should be clear, particularly in the context of the continuing drama surrounding school boards and what’s going on with the Michael Sussmann trial.

On one hand, when the survey was asked was at a time when controversy surrounded the DOJ and FBI’s response to protests at school boards. Back then, if you remember, Merrick Garland’s orders for the FBI to start looking into threats directed toward school board members led many to perceive the FBI as acting at the behest of leftists to crack down on those protesting CRT and LGBT/gender indoctrination at schools. Though some of that response was overblown given what was actually said and ordered, it, like Ruby Ridge and Waco decades before, seriously tarnished the FBI’s image.

Further, John Durham’s investigation into Clinton Campaign-affiliated lawyer Michael Sussmann hasn’t helped its image either, with Americans reading story after story about how Team Clinton passed lies about Trump off to the FBI and it acted on them. Perhaps it was just duped by sleazy political actors (Durham himself hasn’t yet tried to use the allegations to go after the FBI directly), but to many Americans, it looks like the FBI was acting in a politically motivated way.

So now almost half of Americans view the FBI as “Joe Biden’s personal Gestapo” and a “group of politicized thugs.” That’s bad news for the agency that will likely only get worse as more and more details dribble out of the Sussmann trial and the rest of Durham’s investigation.