A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that a majority of Americans, including a sizable number of Democrats support the House Select Committee investigation into the Benghazi attack:
Washington (CNN) - Around half the public says they support another congressional investigation into the Benghazi attack, according to a new national poll.
The reason?
The ABC News/Washington Post survey indicates that nearly six in ten say the Obama administration has tried to cover up the facts on the September 11, 2012 attack, which left U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.
As for Hillary Clinton, half of those questioned in the poll, which was released Tuesday, say they disapprove of how then-secretary of state handled the attack.
(…)
According to the poll, 51% say they support another congressional investigation, with 42% saying the incident’s been investigated enough already. As you can imagine, the survey indicates a wide partisan divide. Seventy-two percent of Republicans questioned say they back the new investigation, but that number drops to 52% among independents and just 31% among Democrats.
Fifty-eight percent say the Obama administration has tried to cover up the facts, with 32% saying it has honestly disclosed what it knows about what happened in Benghazi. Again there’s a large partisan gap, with 84% of Republicans, 65% of independents, but only 30% of Democrats saying the administration has tried to cover things up.
Half of those questioned say they disapprove of how Clinton handled the attack, with 37% saying the approve. Once again, there’s a partisan divide, with 78% of Republicans, 58% of independents, but only 22% of Democrats giving the former secretary of state a thumbs down on how she handled the incident.
Two observations can be made from this poll.
First of all, Republicans can claim that there is popular support for their efforts to continue asking questions regarding the Benghazi attack, which seems like quite a powerful rejoinder to Democratic claims that this is a Republican witch hunt. Second, it may indicate that questions about Benghazi and her time as Secretary of State are going to be more difficult for Hillary Clinton to answer than many, including myself, may have anticipated.
