Half of Democrats back the investigation into the investigation
by digby
Tell me again how Democrats are just as much partisan whores as Republicans:
Sixty-two percent of respondents to the May 17-18 survey said they support Attorney General William Barr’s decision to name a U.S. attorney to determine whether law enforcement officers had obeyed regulations governing surveillance of U.S. citizens while 38 percent said they opposed the new inquiry.
The poll found broad agreement across age groups in favor of the probe led by Connecticut-based U.S. attorney John H. Durham with more than 58 percent of voters under 35, between 35 and 49, between 50 and 64, and older than 64 saying that they supported it.
The president and congressional Republicans have stepped up their attacks on the FBI after special counsel Robert Mueller published a report saying that he could not find evidence that established proof of a criminal conspiracy between Trump 2016 campaign officials and people working for the government of Russia.
Republican respondents were overwhelmingly likely to say they approved of the Durham inquiry with 74 percent supporting it and 26 percent opposing it. Most independents, 67 percent, backed the probe while only 33 percent said they were against it.
Democratic respondents were divided on the issue with 48 percent saying that FBI officials should be investigated for potentially abusing their authority and 52 percent saying that they opposed the idea.
I think this is nuts, personally. This validates the idea of the “Witch hunt” when it’s not necessary — unless you think Mueller and the Intelligence community made this whole Russia thing up (yes, I realize that some people do) what this does is ensure that when it happens again, the IC and law enforcement will think twice before doing anything to stop or looking into American involvement. It is, in other words, a warning to government agents that it would not be prudent to look too closely at any foreign interference that might benefit Trump. (I think they understand very well that looking into interference on behalf of a Democrats would be extremely well received by the administration.)
Having said that, it does put the lie to the fact that both sides are blindly partisan. The fact that Democrats (however foolishly) believe that Trump’s top henchman Bill Barr should investigate the investigation shows that they are not operating from a purely self-serving standpoint and still believe that the government should be scrutinized even when it is possibly in their interest not to.
It doesn’t make them saints or even smart. But it does mean they aren’t as primitively tribal as the Republicans.
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