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The FBI has faced continued scrutiny during the past month from House Republicans, who claimed that the bureau displayed "politicization" in its investigations of former President Donald Trump.
Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, has led ongoing criticism within the party following the Durham report, which concluded that the FBI should not have investigated the 2016 Trump presidential campaign's potential collusion with Russia.
In a sign that concerns are not limited to members of the GOP, a post on social media claimed that the public didn't support the bureau, either, and that most Americans wanted it reformed or abolished.
The Claim
A tweet by conservative commentator and influencer DC_Draino, posted on June 6, 2023, viewed 334,000 times, claimed that "63% of Americans want the FBI reformed or abolished."
The tweet added: "This is what happens when you get caught:
"-spying on a US President
"-colluding w/Big Tech to censor the Hunter Biden laptop
"-using UC agents to instigate J6
"The biggest threats to America are in DC"
The tweet included a link to an article by The Federalist with "Majority Of Americans Want Corrupt FBI To Be Reformed Or 'Shut Down'" as the headline.
The Facts
In the immediate aftermath of the FBI's raid on Mar-a-Lago last summer, the bureau suffered some less favorable reception from the public. A Rasmussen Reports poll conducted in August 2022 found that 46 percent of voters who did not identify as either Democratic or Republican said they trusted it less after the investigation.
In the case of this recent tweet, however, the claims about public perception are not quite what they seem.
The Federalist (a right-leaning news site that the tweet references) cites a poll by Issues & Insights published on June 5, 2023, as its source.
The article, which is less forthright than the tweet, states that "63 percent, want the FBI to face some form of punishment."
It adds that among 1,358 respondents, surveyed between May 31, 2023, and June 2, 2023, "39 percent said they want the FBI to be 'reformed by Congress to keep it from meddling in future elections'" while "24 percent of Americans believe the FBI should face a forced collapse because it 'can't be trusted to do its job.'"
The wording and statistics match the results published by Issues & Insights.
The survey showed a greater proportion of Democrats supported reform, while a higher number of Republicans wanted it rebuilt.
However, the wording of the DC_Draino tweet does not clearly differentiate between these two responses, nor does it explain that the overall majority supports congressional reform.
Further, Issue & Insights' full methodology was not immediately available and it is not clear how many Democrats were surveyed versus Republicans.
The polling questions provided by Issues & Insights are also frontloaded by opinionated language about the findings of the Durham report.
The available responses also might not reflect the true or broader feelings of respondents. For example, the response to agree with reform is worded: "Do you feel the FBI should be...reformed by Congress to keep it from meddling in future elections."
It might well be that respondents feel the FBI should be reformed, but not because of the Durham report or to "keep it meddling in future elections." However, the survey does not appear to reflect that nuance.
Newsweek has reached out to Issues & Insights via email to ask for a full methodology, poll results and a list of its poll questions.
It should be noted that Issues & Insights has been rated as having a "Right Bias" by MediaBias/Fact Check analysts "based on story selection and editorial positions that favor a libertarian/conservative perspective."
While this might not necessarily mean the FBI survey is biased, bias analysis can provide useful context when looking at the results of any poll, whether by Issues & Insights or otherwise.
Other polls suggest public perception might be more mixed. A 2022 Gallup survey of 812 adults aged 18 and up living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia found that 50 percent of respondents felt the FBI was doing either an excellent or good job, up from 44 percent in 2021.
The Gallup poll also shows a significant Republican vs. Democrat skew, with 79 percent of Democratic respondents saying the FBI's performance was excellent or good, compared to only 29 percent of Republicans.
The report by Rasmussen (multiple analyses that suggest a right-leaning bias) also found from the same poll that 50 percent of voters had a favorable impression of the FBI.
While the polls were not conducted in the wake of the Durham report (unlike the Issues & Insights survey), it suggests the public view of the FBI might not be so clear cut.
Whatever the particularities of the Issues & Insight poll, its potential bias or the results of other pollsters, the tweet by DC_Draino does not fairly inform readers that the majority of those polled by Issues & Insights supported reform, not abolishment.
Newsweek has reached out to the FBI via email for comment.
The Ruling
Needs Context.
The tweet is based on a poll that found that a much larger majority of respondents supported reform, not abolishment, of the FBI. The tweet does not clearly state these results.
The full methodology of the poll, conducted by Issues & Insight, was not immediately available. While the poll suggests respondents advocated reform based on election interference concerns, it's not clear whether those concerns were the only motivation for change.
Other recent polling on public perception of the FBI, some of which show an overall favorable view of the bureau, suggest opinion might actually be mixed.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
About the writer
Tom Norton is Newsweek's Fact Check reporter, based in London. His focus is reporting on misinformation and misleading information in ... Read more