House intensifies Benghazi probe. Do voters approve?
| Washington
Do voters want a more intensive congressional investigation into the Benghazi affair?
That question arises because House Republicans are moving to provide the nation with just that. Last week a GOP-led House panel subpoenaed Secretary of State John Kerry to appear and testify about the administration鈥檚 reaction to the Benghazi tragedy. This week Republican lawmakers are set to create a select committee charged with probing the Benghazi affair full-time.
There aren鈥檛 a lot of updated polls on Benghazi, so numbers on the public reaction to this subject aren鈥檛 definitive. But some recent surveys indicate that Americans do indeed approve of a continued congressional investigation into this subject.
A found that 51 percent of respondents agreed that Benghazi merited further investigation. Thirty-four percent disagreed, while the rest weren鈥檛 sure.
Half of respondents to the Rasmussen survey said they weren鈥檛 satisfied with the administration鈥檚 explanations of Benghazi events.
In April, 60 percent of respondents to agreed with the perhaps leading statement that 鈥淐ongress should continue to investigate the Obama administration鈥檚 handling of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the deaths of four Americans until someone is held accountable.鈥�
That is down from the 65 percent who answered in the affirmative to that question last November, according to Fox data.
However, underneath these top-line numbers there is a deep partisan disagreement about the importance of Benghazi, who is to blame for the US deaths, and what Congress should do text. Much of the enthusiasm for pursuing the subject comes from the Republican side of the political aisle.
For instance, , 77 percent of Republicans said then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was either a great deal or somewhat to blame for what happened in Benghazi. The corresponding number for Democrats was only 35 percent.
A on Mrs. Clinton and her presidential prospects shows a similar split.
Asked to rate aspects of Clinton鈥檚 career about which they felt negative, Republicans picked 鈥淏enghazi鈥� as their top item. Twenty-eight percent of GOP respondents said it was the one thing about Clinton they most disliked.
In contrast, only 8 percent of Democrats said Benghazi was Clinton鈥檚 biggest negative.
Overall, this shows that Republicans may have convinced themselves that Benghazi would be a liability for Clinton if she runs in 2016, writes Washington Post political expert Aaron Blake. But they have yet to convince the rest of the nation.
鈥淏enghazi has yet to register as an Achilles heel for Clinton with the American public,鈥� in "The Fix" blog.
