In the days since the Biden Justice Department indicted and arraigned former President Donald Trump, Americans' view of the case has turned increasingly sour with a majority of respondents to a Harvard CAPS / Harris poll taking Trump's side and agreeing the case constitutes "election interference."
According to the poll, 55 percent of Americans say the Trump indictment is "politically motivated" compared to 45 percent who say it is a "valid" case while even more — 56 percent — say the indictment is "interference by the Department of Justice in the 2024 elections" and just 44 percent of Americans view the case as a "fair application of the law."
Harvard Harris Poll:
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) June 16, 2023
— 55% of Americans say Trump's indictment is politically motivated, (including 83% of Republicans and 55% of Independents)
— 56% consider Trump's federal indictment to be an interference by the Justice Department in the 2024 Elections pic.twitter.com/9UtnV0UtD2
In a post on his site, Jonathan Turley says the Harvard CAPS / Harris poll "captures the level of distrust for the Justice Department" and demonstrates "the failure of Merrick Garland at the midpoint of his tenure as Attorney General."
More from Turley's analysis:
The view of the case appears to be worsening. Now there is less than a majority viewing the indictment as well-founded and justified. The poll shows that 83% of Republicans and 55% of Independents view the indictment as a political exercise...
The poll is also bad news for Biden. Some 65 percent believe Biden “mishandled” classified material while 72 percent take that view with Clinton’s email scandal.
The Justice Department and the media appear to have “lost the room” with the American people. They are primarily appealing to Democrats who (at 80%) support the indictment.
The FBI and the Justice Department made this perception worse through continual leaks to the media and allegedly staging the photo above after the raid on Mar-a-Lago.
By his own measure, Garland has failed to restore the credibility and trust in the Justice Department. It now appears worse than when his predecessor, Bill Barr, was in office.
It is also an indictment of the media. After years of “advocacy journalism” and biased reporting, the public now tunes out the media. This is a strong indictment with troubling allegations and evidence. Yet, it does not matter because the media long ago lost much of the country with one-sided, unrelenting coverage.
It also means that this case could conceivably never see a jury unless Special Counsel Jack Smith succeeds in pushing for a speedy trial before the election. A majority of the public now supports a pardon for Trump if he is convicted. With these polls, the pressure of other Republican candidates to pledge a pardon is likely to increase. Indeed, as suggested in another column, Biden may want to consider a pledge to commute any sentence to try to defang this building election issue.
So, it appears, the Biden administration has managed to give their boss' leading opponent heading into 2024 exactly what he wanted: endless earned (read: free) media exposure and continuing status as a martyr for the cause while pushing an increasing number of Americans to see the case through the lens espoused by Trump.
At the same time, Biden and his Justice Department have made Americans' view of the DOJ even worse, and gave Biden's handling of documents an even more serious appearance (if they'll try to send Trump to prison for 100 years, this must be a bad thing!) as Biden seeks to minimize the existence of documents at Biden's post-VP office and Delaware garage.