CNN Poll: A majority of Americans believe Joe Biden, as VP, was involved with son’s business dealings

By Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN

(CNN) — Most Americans say they think President Joe Biden was involved in his son’s business dealings with Ukraine and China while he served as vice president under Barack Obama, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

A majority, 61%, say they think that Biden had at least some involvement in Hunter Biden’s business dealings, with 42% saying they think he acted illegally, and 18% saying that his actions were unethical but not illegal. Another 38% say they don’t believe Joe Biden had any involvement in his son’s business dealings during his vice presidency. Just 1% believe Biden was involved, but did not do anything wrong.

A 55% majority of the public says the president has acted inappropriately regarding the investigation into Hunter Biden over potential crimes, while 44% say that he has acted appropriately.

The poll was conducted before special counsel David Weiss said in a Wednesday court filing that he intends to seek an indictment against Hunter Biden relating to gun charges by the end of the month. President Biden has denied being involved in any of his son’s business dealings, and House Oversight Republicans have not presented any direct evidence that the president personally benefited from any of them.

Americans’ views on Joe Biden’s conduct related to Hunter Biden largely divide along partisan lines. Fewer than one-third of Democrats believe that Biden had involvement in his son’s business dealings, or that he has acted inappropriately regarding the investigation. Even among Democratic-aligned voters who say they’d prefer to see their party nominate someone different in next year’s presidential election, just 37% believe Joe Biden was involved in his son’s business dealings, and only 29% find his actions regarding the investigation inappropriate. In response to an open-ended question asking for their biggest concern about Joe Biden as a candidate, almost none mentioned the situation regarding Hunter Biden.

By contrast, broad majorities of Republicans say they think Joe Biden acted illegally in regards to his son’s business dealings (76%), and behaved inappropriately regarding the later investigation into Hunter Biden (90%). Independents mostly say Joe Biden did have some involvement in Hunter Biden’s business dealings while serving as vice president (64%), but fewer (39%) say he acted illegally in doing so. About half feel he has acted inappropriately regarding the investigation (52%).

The CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS from August 25-31 among a random national sample of 1,503 adults drawn from a probability-based panel. The survey included an oversample to reach a total of 898 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents; this group has been weighted to its proper size within the population. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results among the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 points.

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