Nearly 60 Percent Think Joe Biden Was Involved in Son's Illegal Influence Peddling
Nearly 60 percent of likely voting Oklahomans believe that then-Vice President Joe Biden participated with his son, Hunter Biden, in an illegal influence peddling scheme, according to the most recent SoonerPoll Quarterly.
This question was fielded in June and since then more information about Hunter Biden's overseas business has come out in U.S. House committee hearings, including the testimony of Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's former business partner. Archer testified that then-Vice President Biden participated in multiple dinners and conference calls with Hunter Biden and his oversea business clients.
Influence peddling is a form of bribery and bribery is specifically mentioned as an impeachable offense in the U.S. Constitution.
[QUESTION] "From what you know, do you think Joe Biden was involved with his son in an illegal influence peddling scheme while he was Vice President, OR do you think this is not the case?"
- Joe Biden was involved 59.5%
- Joe Biden was NOT involved 40.5
More than 89 percent of Republicans believed Joe Biden was involved in illegal influencing peddling. Democrats, however, were the exact opposite with 92.5 percent believing the then-Vice President was not involved. Independents were more mixed, but still a strong majority, 59.3 percent, believed Biden was not involved.
While those who identify as very conservative were overwhelmingly convinced that Joe Biden was involved at 98.5 percent, the near same was found among those on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum, those who identify as very liberal, believing he was not involved at 90 percent. But the middle of the spectrum, moderates, mostly sided with Democrats saying Biden was not involved at 63.2 percent.
A majority of those with less than a college degree believed Biden was involved in illegal influence peddling, but among those with a college degree or higher, a majority believed he was not involved. Those with a college degree was near split with 48.6 percent saying he was involved and 51.4 percent saying he wasn't. Among those with a post graduate degree, the percentage of those believing he wasn't involved grew to 56.9 percent.
A majority was found in every Oklahoma congressional district of those believing Biden was involved in illegal influence peddling, with the least being in the Oklahoma's 3rd and 4th Districts at 51.1 percent and 51.7 percent respectively.
Those age 18-24 were near split in their beliefs about Biden's involvement with 48.8 percent believing he was involved to 51.2 percent believing he wasn't. More than 69 percent of those over the age of 65 believe Biden was involved with his son in an illegal influence peddling scheme. More than 63 percent of those age 55-64 believed he was involved. Those over the age of 54 make up 58 percent of the electorate.
Men were 11 points more likely to believe Biden was involved with illegal influence peddling, 65.9 to 54.5 percent for women.
About the Poll
SoonerPoll.com, Oklahoma’s public opinion pollster, asked these questions of Oklahoma likely voters.
The scientific study was conducted from June 1-4, 2023 with 302 likely Oklahoma voters selected at random statewide from SoonerPoll's proprietary online panel. The sample was weighted by education, age, and congressional district in order to reflect the Oklahoma likely voter population for a general election. The weighting was conducted using a 'layered technique.'
The sample reflects the traditional demographical profile of the Oklahoma likely voter with roughly half of respondents identifying as conservative and nearly a third identifying as Moderate. The study has a Margin of Error (MoE) of ±5.65 percent.
A complete description of the methodology can be found here.
