OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last August and the search became the subject of extensive polling. A survey found that Trump’s base was energized by the raid and the public at large had serious concerns. With November’s midterm elections in the rearview mirror and the 2024 presidential election inching closer, polling indicates that Republican voters are standing firm with Trump.
“Such attacks on Trump did move the needle with the Republican electorate after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, but that blowback wore off when their voices faded. And more recently, the FBI’s raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in search of documents taken from the White House appeared to actually boost Trump’s standing a bit with GOP voters, showing the limits of potential attack lines and underlying the wariness of some to go after him,” Morning Consult reported.
In August, a separate Morning Consult poll found that: “In the Aug. 10 survey, 58% of Republican voters said they would support Trump if the 2024 Republican presidential primary were today, the highest on record since his 2020 loss. The share of support is up from 54% in July and 53% in June amid the high-profile congressional Jan. 6 hearings. Trump’s improvement has come to the detriment of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose 2024 support has slumped 5 percentage points since late July, to 16%. Similarly, a record-high 71% of GOP voters say that Trump should run for president in 2024.”
For President Joe Biden, things might be different.
On Friday, the FBI conducted a search of Biden’s private home and found more classified documents he should not have had.
A separate ABC News/Ipsos poll found that: “In the case of Biden’s mishandling of files, 38% of Democrats, compared to 89% of Republicans, feel the president’s actions were inappropriate (66% of independents agree).”
The search of Biden’s residence in Delaware on Friday took over 12 hours with the approval of the president’s attorneys.
CNN reported:
Those six items are in addition to materials previously found at Biden’s Wilmington residence and in his private office. The federal search of Biden’s home, while voluntary, marks an escalation of special counsel Robert Hur’s probe into the president’s handling of classified documents and will inevitably draw comparisons to his predecessor, former President Donald Trump – even if the FBI’s search of Trump’s residence was conducted under different circumstances.
The FBI five months ago obtained a search warrant to search Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, an unprecedented step that was taken because federal investigators had evidence suggesting Trump had not handed over all classified materials in his possession after receiving a subpoena to turn over classified documents to the National Archives. Trump’s handling of classified material at Mar-a-Lago is also the subject of a special counsel investigation led by Jack Smith.
The search shows that federal investigators are swiftly moving forward with the probe into classified documents found in Biden’s possession. Hur, who was appointed a little more than a week ago, is investigating how the president and his team handled Obama-era classified documents that were recently found in Biden’s private possession.
Last week, Republicans sounded the alarm after sensitive documents were discovered in the garage of Biden’s Wilmington home as well as his think tank.
There are also questions surrounding a lack of transparency on why the U.S. Secret Service apparently does not have any visitor logs from Biden’s Delaware home.
Ohio Republican Jim Jordan vowed that House Republicans would “get to the bottom” of it and hold investigations of their own. He also spoke about Trump being treated much differently than Biden and even Clinton when she came under fire over her private email server scandal.
Republican Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, is also demanding the logs and more answers.
The Justice Department has appointed Special Counsel Robert Hur to lead the investigation into Biden’s classified documents case.
