A majority of voters want Congress to investigate President Joe Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal, according to a Rasmussen poll released on Thursday.
The survey found that 62 percent of likely U.S. voters believe Congress should investigate how the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was handled. Twenty-eight percent are against a congressional investigation and 10 percent are not sure.
Broken down by political affiliation, 80 percent of Republicans, 47 percent of Democrats, and 59 percent of unaffiliated voters think Congress should investigate the withdrawal, in which 13 U.S. troops were killed and hundreds of Americans were left behind.
President Joe Biden’s strongest supporters are most likely to oppose an investigation, according to the poll, which surveyed 1,000 likely U.S. voters between August 30-31, 2021. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Among those polled who highly rate Biden’s job performance, 66 percent say Congress should not investigate the withdrawal. In comparison, out of those who strongly disapprove of Biden 89 percent say an investigation should take place.
President Joe Biden turns to leave the podium after speaking about the end of the war in Afghanistan from the State Dining Room of the White House, August 31, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Less than a third of voters think the withdrawal was successful, despite Biden calling it an “extraordinary success.” In contrast to the commander-in-chief’s optimism, 65 percent believe the mission was unsuccessful, including 47 percent who say it was “not at all successful.”
Democrats are more lenient when it comes to their view of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Fifty-one percent say it was at “at least somewhat successful.” Only 15 percent of Republicans and 25 percent of affiliated voters feel the same way.
The White House said Friday that Biden still had confidence in his generals and in Secretary of State Antony Blinken after their disastrous performance in Afghanistan. On the contrary, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of Republicans believe that U.S. generals and officials involved in planning the withdrawal should be forced to resign, but only 34 percent of Democrats and 44 percent of unaffiliated voters agree.
Taliban special force fighters arrive inside the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the U.S. military’s withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi)
Earlier in the evacuation process, Democratic-led congressional committees vowed to press Biden’s administration on what went wrong.
For two weeks, Republicans called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “to launch a bipartisan and bicameral investigation into the Biden administration’s failed withdrawal of American forces. They’ve done absolutely nothing,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said.