About half of Americans say they have little or no confidence that the Justice Department is handling its investigation into Hunter Biden in a fair and nonpartisan way, and 1 in 3 are highly concerned about whether President Joe Biden may have committed wrongdoing related to his son’s business dealings, according to a new poll. But the political divide is stark.

What You Need To Know

  • About half of Americans say they have little or no confidence that the Justice Department is handling its investigation into Hunter Biden in a fair and nonpartisan way, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

  • But the results of the poll are starkly split along partisan lines: Sixty-six percent of Republicans – and just 7% of Democrats – are very or extremely concerned about whether Joe Biden committed wrongdoing when it comes to his son's business dealings

  • The poll shows a majority of Americans, 56%, say they’ve heard at least some about the investigations into Hunter Biden, although only 18% say they’ve heard a lot

  • Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they’ve heard at least some about the investigations (68% to 51%) and that they’ve heard a lot (27% to 13%)

Sixty-six percent of Republicans – and just 7% of Democrats – are very or extremely concerned about whether Joe Biden committed wrongdoing when it comes to his son's business dealings, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Overall, Democrats are far more wary of faulting the president at all with regard to his son's business dealings.

The poll was conducted just before House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched a formal impeachment inquiry aiming to link the president to the business dealings of his son and deflect attention from Donald Trump’s legal peril as the two men battle anew for the White House. A special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland is investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings, after a plea deal on tax and gun charges fell apart.

Over the yearslong probe, federal prosecutors have not indicated Joe Biden is connected. And so far, Republicans have unearthed no significant evidence of wrongdoing by the elder Biden, who spoke often to his son as vice president and did stop by a business dinner with his son’s associates. The White House, for its part, maintains Joe Biden was not involved in his son’s business affairs.

Those assurances haven't stopped Americans from worrying, and shifts in White House explanations — from earlier insisting Biden had never spoken to his son about his overseas business dealings to now saying Biden was not in business with his son — have caused concern.

The poll also found that just 19% of Americans are very or extremely confident that the Justice Department is handling its investigation in a fair and nonpartisan way. An additional 30% are somewhat confident, and 50% say they are not too confident or not at all confident.

That view is especially common among Republicans: 79% say they have little to no confidence in the fairness of the investigation. Even Democrats express mediocre levels of confidence: 33% are highly confident, 36% are somewhat confident and 29% have little confidence.

The political polarization is reflective of the larger divide in the U.S., and bright political lines have also been drawn around the validity of the 2024 election, and Trump’s first impeachment.

An August AP-NORC poll, for example, found that 85% of Democrats but just 16% of Republicans approved of the Justice Department’s indictment of Trump in the federal case involving allegations that he worked illegally to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election. There was a similar partisan divide in beliefs that Trump did something illegal in the Florida classified documents case, his role in what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and his alleged attempt to interfere in Georgia’s 2020 presidential vote count.

The poll shows a majority of Americans, 56%, say they’ve heard at least some about the investigations into Hunter Biden, although only 18% say they’ve heard a lot. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they’ve heard at least some about the investigations (68% to 51%) and that they’ve heard a lot (27% to 13%).

Among Republicans, those who say they’ve heard at least some about the investigations are more likely than those who have heard less to say they are highly concerned about whether Joe Biden committed wrongdoing (76% to 45%) and that they have little to no confidence that the Justice Department’s investigation is fair (88% to 60%).

Among Democrats, those who are paying at least some attention to the investigations are no more or less likely than others to be concerned about Joe Biden’s role, and are actually somewhat more likely than those paying less attention to say they’re highly confident in the Justice Department’s investigation being fair, 42% to 24%.