A staggering 66 percent of Democrat respondents to a new Rasmussen poll approve of the Department of Justice’s authorizing the use of “deadly force” in the FBI raid at former President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, while Republicans and Independents disapprove.
According to data provided by Rasmussen Reports, 71 percent of identified Republicans and 51 percent of Independents turned thumbs down on the deadly force authorization. Nobody was injured in the highly-publicized August 2022 raid at the former president’s home.
In a May 23 “Fact Check” article, the Associated Press says authorizing lethal force “only when necessary.” The AP “Fact Check” tends to downplay Trump’s expressed alarm at learning of the authorization by saying the former president “pointed to standard language in an unsealed FBI document to baselessly claim that the Biden administration wanted to kill him during a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, nearly two years ago.”
Rasmussen’s poll found that 44 percent of likely voters approve of the deadly force authorization, including 29 percent who “strongly approve.” However, 49 percent disapprove, including 39 percent who “strongly disapprove.”
Trump was not at the estate when the raid occurred.
Rasmussen notes in its report that “Trump advisor Roger Stone has said there is “a group of politicized thugs at the top of the FBI who are using the FBI … as Joe Biden‘s personal Gestapo.” According to the veteran polling firm, 48 percent of voters “agree with that statement, including 30% who Strongly Agree. Forty-three percent (43%) disagree, including 34% who Strongly Disagree. In August 2022, immediately after the Mar-a-Lago raid, 53% agreed with Stone’s quote.”
Breaking the numbers down even farther, 68 percent of Republicans “at least somewhat agree” that the FBI is being used “as Joe Biden‘s personal Gestapo,” Rasmussen said, “as do 29 percent of Democrats and 46 percent” of Independents.
Trump is currently in New York awaiting a verdict in the case against the former president regarding allegations of falsifying business records. The jury began deliberations Wednesday, according to Fox News.
Meanwhile, Trump supporters have been gathering outside the courthouse in Manhattan, calling this a “political prosecution,” according to a separate Fox report.
