Congress received its lowest approval rating in nearly five years as Americans split over whether a Republican push for an impeachment inquiry against President Biden is legitimate or bogus.
Forty-seven percent of registered voters believe the inquiries are a legitimate action on a serious matter while 48% think they are a bogus attempt to undermine Biden’s presidency.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy directed the House to open an official impeachment inquiry into the president over his family’s business dealings.
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The latest Fox News survey, released Friday, was conducted Sept. 9-12.
Most Republicans (79%) believe the action is legitimate, and most Democrats (83%) think it’s bogus. Independents are more divided (44% legitimate, 48% bogus).
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“Unsurprisingly, in a sharply divided country, voters are sharply divided over impeaching the president,” says Democrat Chris Anderson who conducts the Fox News Poll with Republican Daron Shaw. “But it is far from clear how this will play out. There is certainly as much potential risk as reward for Republicans when it comes to how this will affect elections next year.”
Some 38% think Biden did something illegal when it comes to his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, 25% believe he acted unethically but not illegally and another 34% said he didn’t do anything seriously wrong.
The Fox News August survey also found 50% of voters think Hunter Biden did something illegal in his foreign business dealings in Ukraine and China, up from 44% in April and a low of 37% in February. Earlier this summer, 55% felt the Department of Justice’s treatment of Hunter Biden was motivated by partisan politics.
Hunter Biden was indicted Thursday on federal gun charges unrelated to his business dealings.
President Biden has seen a steady increase in the portion of voters thinking he’s corrupt. Forty-eight percent think the word describes him, up seven points since shortly before the 2020 election. For comparison, 56% think Donald Trump is corrupt, a number that has held steady from three years ago.
How do voters view Congress these days? Not well. Just one in five (19%) approve of the job lawmakers are doing. That’s the lowest rating since January 2019 and down 10 points since April. Three-quarters of voters disapprove (76%).
At a fundraiser in Virginia, Biden said Republicans want to impeach him to “shut down the government,” referring to both the impending inquiries and the looming debt ceiling debate.
Around seven in 10 voters are extremely or very concerned about a political showdown over the debt ceiling (68%) and the federal budget deficit in general (72%). Democrats and Republicans are equally concerned about political theater over the debt ceiling, while more Republicans than Democrats are worried about the federal budget deficit.
Still more are concerned about inflation (91% extremely or very), the cost of housing (79%), taxes (75%) and being able to pay bills (74%). Two-thirds are worried about unemployment (65%).
A couple more things …
• Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s unfavorable rating has reached a high of 71%, up from 62% in February 2022, the last time his rating was tested. Majorities of Democrats (79%) and independents (69%), and even two-thirds of Republicans (65%) have a negative view of him.
McConnell has made headlines this year for multiple health scares, bringing into question his future leading Senate Republicans.
• Forty-three percent of voters approve of the U.S. response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, down from 47% in May. Two-thirds of Democrats approve, while most Republicans and over half of independents disapprove. Overall, 54% disapprove of the U.S. response.
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Conducted September 9-12, 2023, under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with 1,012 registered voters nationwide who were randomly selected from a voter file and spoke with live interviewers on both landlines and cellphones. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for all registered voters.
