Poll: Nearly 3 Out of 4 Americans Say GOP’s Benghazi Panel Is Political

Democratic presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton listens as she testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015, before the House Benghazi Committee. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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The vast majority of the American public believes that the Republican-led House Select Committee on Benghazi is politically motivated, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Thursday morning.

The poll, which came out the day that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before the committee about her involvement in the 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, found that a whopping 72 percent of Americans think the panel’s primary purpose is political gain. In contrast, 23 percent said the investigation was objective.

A surprising number of Republicans—49 percent—acknowledged that the panel is intent on scoring political points against Clinton, the current frontrunner in the Democratic presidential race, with 85 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of independents agreeing.

The partisan divide was starker on the issue of how Clinton’s maintenance of a separate email server as secretary of state reflected on her character and ability to serve as president. Though 54 percent of all respondents said it was important, only 28 percent of Democrats said that they thought it was, compared to 57 percent of independents and 80 percent of Republicans.

The CNN/ORC poll was conducted among 1,028 adults by telephone between Oct. 14-17. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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