Congressional Republicans promised explosive revelations in last week’s hearing on the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, but the vast majority of the public wasn’t paying attention.
The latest findings from Pew Research Center released on Monday found that only 44 percent of Americans were following the hearing “very” or “fairly” closely. By contrast, 56 percent said they followed the hearing either “not too closely” or “not at all.” Those numbers are largely unchanged from Pew’s findings on the question in January, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified on Benghazi. In October, a month removed from the attack, Pew found that 61 percent of Americans were following the story at least fairly closely.
While Americans are united by their lack of interest in the story, they are divided on two questions dominating the debate. Thirty-seven percent said the Obama administration has been honest about Benghazi, while 40 percent said the administration has been dishonest and 23 percent indicated that they do not know. Meanwhile, 36 percent believe Republicans have gone too far with the hearings, compared with 34 percent who believe they have handled the investigation appropriately and 30 percent who said they don’t know.
