Americans divided on whether President Biden received special treatment in classified documents report

Washington DC, February 13, 2024— New Reuters/Ipsos polling finds that Americans are split on whether President Biden received special treatment after federal prosecutors declined to press charges on Biden after a 15-month probe into his possible mishandling of classified documents, which was detailed in the recently released Hur Report. One in four Americans are very familiar with comments Special Counsel Robert Hur made regarding President Biden’s age. Majorities of Americans feel President Biden and former President Trump are too old to work in government. However, more Americans feel President Biden is too old to work in government than former President Donald Trump. A bare majority of Americans would not vote for Donald Trump if he was convicted of a felony or was serving time in prison.
Reuters stories are below:

• First Reuters/Ipsos Polling Story: Biden, Trump remain locked in tight rematch after special counsel report: Reuters/Ipsos poll
• Second Reuters/Ipsos poll: Half of Americans think Biden got special treatment in document probe, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

Detailed findings:

• Regarding the probe, about half of Americans say Biden is receiving special treatment because he is president (53% agree, 42% disagree, and 4% skipped the question). Roughly half believes Biden was treated fairly (52% agree, 43% disagree, and 4% skipped). 
• Forty-six percent agree that Biden received special treatment because the prosecutors favor his political party, while 50% disagree and 4% skipped the question. 
• Only 28% say Biden is being mistreated by a prosecutor who opposes his political party, with two in three Americans (68%) disagreeing with this statement. 
• A quarter of Americans (26%) say they are “very familiar” with Special Counsel Robert Hur's comment that a jury would be unlikely to convict Biden because he would present himself “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” At the same time, 36% of Americans have not heard of this comment. 
• Overall, about two-thirds of Americans find it believable that Trump and Biden took classified documents when they left office. Two in three Americans (64%) say it is very or somewhat believable that Joe Biden illegally took classified information with him when he left the vice presidency in 2017. A similar share of Americans (68%) say it is believable that Donald Trump illegally removed classified documents from the White House and stored them at his home at Mar A Lago. 
• While majorities of Americans feel Biden and Trump are both too old to work in government, perceptions of age impact Biden more than Trump. Seventy-eight percent of Americans say that Biden is too old to work in government and just 35% say he is mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges, while 53% say Trump is too old to work in government, and 50% believe he is sharp and able to deal with challenges.
• A majority of Americans say they would not vote for Trump if he was convicted of a felony or was currently serving time in prison. A bare majority (55%) say that they would NOT vote for Donald Trump if he was convicted of a felony crime by a jury, while 58% say they would NOT vote for Trump if he was currently serving time in prison.

About the Study

This Ipsos poll was conducted February 9-12, 2024, by Ipsos for Reuters using the probability-based KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a representative probability sample of 1,237 general population adults age 18 or older in the United States. The sample includes 509 Democrats, 502 Republicans, and 135 Independents.

 The margin of sampling error for this study is plus or minus 2.91 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.09. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on other sub-samples. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent. The poll also has a margin of plus or minus 5.09 percentage points for Democrats, plus or minus 5.26 percentage points for Republicans, and plus or minus 5.14 percentage points for independents. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which is 1.03 among Democrats, 2.03 among Republicans, and 1.03 among independents.

The survey was conducted using KnowledgePanel, the largest and most well-established online probability-based panel that is representative of the adult U.S. population. Our recruitment process employs a scientifically developed addressed-based sampling methodology using the latest Delivery Sequence File of the USPS – a database with full coverage of all delivery points in the US. Households invited to join the panel are randomly selected from all available households in the U.S. Persons in the sampled households are invited to join and participate in the panel. Those selected who do not already have internet access are provided a tablet and internet connection at no cost to the panel member. Those who join the panel and who are selected to participate in a survey are sent a unique password-protected log-in used to complete surveys online. As a result of our recruitment and sampling methodologies, samples from KnowledgePanel cover all households regardless of their phone or internet status and findings can be reported with a margin of sampling error and projected to the general population.

The data for the total sample were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race/ethnicity, Census region, education, household income, metropolitan status, and political party identification. The demographic benchmarks came from the 2023 March Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS). Political Party Benchmarks came from high quality polling. More details about the weighting benchmarks for this study can be found below:

• Gender (Male, Female) by Age (18–29, 30–44, 45–59, and 60+)
• Race/Hispanic Ethnicity (White Non-Hispanic, Black Non-Hispanic, Other or 2+ Races Non-Hispanic, Hispanic)
• Education (High School graduate or less, Some College, Bachelors and beyond)
• Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
• Metropolitan status (Metro, non-Metro)
• Household Income (Under $25,000, $25,000-$49,999, $50,000-$74,999, $75,000-$99,999, $100,000-$149,999, $150,000+)
• Political party (Republican, Democrat, Independent, Other/Not Asked/Skipped)

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson

Senior Vice President, US

Public Affairs

+1 202 420-2025

[email protected]

Annaleise Azevedo Lohr

Director, U.S.

Public Affairs

[email protected]

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