WASHINGTON (AP) — As President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, prepares for questioning from senators on Wednesday, only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults are “extremely” or “very” confident that the Department of Justice will act in a fair and nonpartisan manner during his second term, a poll finds.
Their faith in the neutrality of the FBI is similarly low, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which was conducted before the beginning of the confirmation hearings for Trump’s Cabinet. Even some Republicans express uncertainty in the Justice Department and the FBI, suggesting that even once they take office, Trump and his allies may find it challenging to restore trust in the law enforcement agencies they’ve heavily criticized.
Adding to the doubts about the incoming Trump administration, the poll also finds that Americans’ views of several of his highest-profile nominees are more negative than positive, although many don’t have an opinion about the people he’s selected for his Cabinet.
However, one of Trump’s more controversial nominees, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is still broadly popular with Republicans, according to the poll. Kennedy, the scion of a Democratic dynasty and a prominent vaccine skeptic, has been tapped as top health official. His confirmation hearings have not been scheduled.
Doubts about law enforcement agencies’ fairness
Trump has selected loyalists to lead the Department of Justice and the FBI after threatening to retaliate against perceived adversaries. Relatively few Americans are confident that these agencies will act in a fair and impartial manner over the next four years, according to the poll.
About half of Americans are “not very” or “not at all” confident that the Justice Department and the FBI will act in a fair and nonpartisan manner during Trump’s second term, while about one-third are “somewhat” confident and about 2 in 10 are “extremely” or “very” confident.
Even as a new GOP administration prepares to take control, Republicans are split on whether the DOJ and the FBI will remain neutral. Only about one-quarter of Republicans are at least “very” confident that the agencies will behave in a nonpartisan way, while about 4 in 10 are “somewhat” confident and roughly one-third are “not very” or “not at all” confident.
Their uncertainty may reflect the fact that the nation’s law enforcement agencies have been heavily criticized over the last few years by Trump and his allies, including by Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, and Kash Patel, his choice to lead the FBI. In one radio appearance, Bondi described special counsel Jack Smith, who who charged Trump in two federal cases, and other prosecutors who have charged Trump as “horrible” people she said were trying to make names for themselves by “going after Donald Trump and weaponizing our legal system.”
Patel, meanwhile, has called for dramatic changes to the FBI, including reducing its footprint and authority.
Views of key nominees are more negative than positive
The poll finds that only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of Pete Hegseth’s nomination as secretary of defense. He faced contentious confirmation hearings on Tuesday. A similarly small share say they “somewhat” or “strongly” approve of Tulsi Gabbard being tapped to serve as intelligence chief and Patel being selected as FBI director. About one-third of Americans disapprove of each of the picks, while the rest either don’t have an opinion or don’t know enough to say.
Many Republicans are on board with Trump’s choice of Hegseth, Gabbard and Patel — about 4 in 10 approve of their nominations — although a significant chunk aren’t familiar with the nominees or don’t have an opinion.
The poll also indicates that many Americans may be skeptical of Trump’s strategy in selecting some Cabinet nominees, like Hegseth, a former Fox News Channel weekend host, who does not have a traditional track record in government. Only about one-quarter say that it would be a good thing for the president to rely on people without government experience for advice about government policy, while about half say it would be a bad thing and the rest say it wouldn’t be good or bad.
Republicans are more likely than Democrats or independents to say it’s a good thing for the president to rely on people without government experience — about 4 in 10 say this, compared with about 2 in 10 independents and about 1 in 10 Democrats — while about 3 in 10 say it’s neither good nor bad and about one-quarter say it’s a bad thing.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination is broadly popular among Republicans
But not all of the nominees are unknown — and at least one has many fans in Trump’s base. Kennedy, who has promised to overhaul the Department of Health and Human Services’ staff, has broader name recognition than Hegseth, Gabbard or Patel, but Americans’ feelings toward him are still more cold than warm. About 3 in 10 U.S. adults “somewhat” or “strongly” approve of Kennedy’s nomination, while about 4 in 10 “somewhat” or “strongly” disapprove, and the rest are neutral or don’t know enough to say.
Republicans are largely fans of Kennedy’s nomination, however, with about 6 in 10 saying they approve of his selection as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,147 adults was conducted Jan. 9-13, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
