Majority of registered voters unphased by Hunter Biden verdict

Washington, DC, June 13, 2024 – The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll—which began fielding after the announcement of a guilty verdict in the federal felony gun purchasing trial against Hunter Biden—shows that a majority of Americans across party lines believe the trial was conducted fairly. That said, most Americans believe Hunter Biden should have to spend time in prison for lying about his drug use in order to buy a gun. Most Republicans and independents agree on this, but most Democrats say Hunter Biden should not have to spend time in prison. Ultimately, though, most Americans say Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict has no impact on their decision to vote for President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden’s father.

Detailed Findings:

1. A plurality of Americans says the indictment of Hunter Biden on criminal gun and tax charges were not politically motivated.
   • A plurality of Americans (46%), and half of registered voters (50%), say they disagree that Hunter Biden would not have been criminally charged for lying about his drug use to buy a gun if he were not President Joe Biden’s son.
   • However, sentiment varies across party lines. Most Republicans (62%) and a plurality of independents (49%) say Hunter Biden would have been criminally charged regardless of his father. Meanwhile, a plurality of Democrats (47%) say Hunter Biden would not have been criminally charged if his father was not the president.
2. Following Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict, most Americans across party lines say the trial was conducted fairly. The majority of Americans say Hunter Biden should spend time in prison.
   • Three in five Americans (58%) say the federal trial against Hunter Biden for lying about his drug use to buy a gun was conducted fairly. Just 4% say it was not conducted fairly, and 37% of Americans say they don’t know.
   • Republicans are more likely than Democrats and independents to say they believe the trial was conducted fairly (71% vs. 58% and 61%, respectively).
   • Fifty-eight percent of Americans say Hunter Biden should spend time in prison for having lied about his drug use to buy a gun. Most Republicans (77%) and independents (60%) agree, but just 38% of Democrats say the same. Instead, 60% of Democrats say Hunter Biden should not have to spend time in prison.
3. Most Americans say Hunter Biden’s legal troubles are independent of and unrelated to his father’s service as president. That said, most registered voters say Hunter Biden’s legal troubles have no affect on their vote.
   • Just over half (56%) of Americans, and 59% of registered voters, say Hunter Biden’s legal troubles are independent of and unrelated to his father’s service as president. Most Democrats and independents agree, but Republicans are less likely to say the same (79% and 58% vs. 42%, respectively).
   • Three in four Americans (76%) and registered voters (78%) say Hunter Biden’s legal troubles have had no impact on their likelihood of voting for Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election. This sentiment is shared among decisive majorities of Americans across political affiliations.
4. After Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict, Biden and Trump remain in a statistical dead heat for the presidency. This reading is unchanged from last month.
   • Among registered voters, 41% say they would vote for Trump and 39% say they would vote for Biden if the election for president were held today. This reading is statistically unchanged from late May 2024.
   • Four in five registered Democrats (82%) say they would vote for Biden, and 85% of registered Republicans say they would vote for Trump. Among registered independents, 36% say they would vote for Trump, 33% say they would vote for Biden, and 13% say they would vote for some other candidate.

About the Study

This Ipsos poll was conducted June 12, 2024, on behalf of Reuters using the KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a representative sample of 1,119 U.S. residents, age 18 or older.

The study was conducted in English. The data for the total sample were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race/ethnicity, education, Census region, metropolitan status, and household income. Party ID benchmarks are from the 2023 NPORS annual survey. The demographic benchmarks came from the 2023 March Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS).

• Gender (Male, Female) by Age (18-29, 30-44, 45-59, 60+)
• Race-Ethnicity (White/Non-Hispanic, Black/Non-Hispanic, Other/Non-Hispanic and 2+ Races/Non-Hispanic, Hispanic)
• Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West) 
• Metropolitan Status (Metro, Non-Metro)
• Education (High School graduate or less, Some College, Bachelor or higher)
• Household Income (under $25K, $25K-$49,999, $50K-$74,999, $75K-$99,999, $100K-$149,999, $150K and over)
• Party ID (Democrat, Lean Democrat, Republican, Lean Republican, Independent/Something else)

The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.16 for all adults. 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.

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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