Republican voters turn against FBI according to new poll
More Republicans now have a negative view of the FBI than a positive one, a new poll has revealed in a sign that Donald Trump’s criticism is cutting through.
An online poll found that 47 per cent of Republicans have an “unfavourable” opinion of the FBI while just 38 per cent see it favourably.
It suggests that voters for the Republican Party, traditionally the defender of national security, have followed the US president in souring on the country’s intelligence agencies.
It comes with Mr Trump locked in a war of words with FBI and Justice Department leaders over whether they have shown political bias in the Russia investigation.
The battle has political significance as findings about whether Trump campaign figures acted improperly over Russia in the 2016 election are expected to be published within months.
The poll of 2,500 Americans, conducted by SurveyMonkey for the political website Axios, was taken on Thursday and Friday amid a fierce row over the publication of a secret memo.
The three-and-a-half page document, written by Republican congressmen with access to confidential information, was released on Friday after Mr Trump's approval.
Republicans have pounced on the memo’s claim that senior justice and FBI officials acted improperly when securing a wiretap on a Trump campaign aide as proof of political bias.
Mr Trump on Saturday said the memo “totally vindicates” him over alleged links to the Russians.
Christopher Wray, the FBI director who lobbied hard to keep the memo private over fears it exposed intelligence methods and was factually incomplete, defended the agency in a message to staff..
“The American people read the papers, and they hear lots of talk on cable TV and social media,” Mr Wray wrote, in an apparent rebuke of Mr Trump.
“But they see and experience the actual work you do - keeping communities safe and our nation secure, often dealing with sensitive matters and making decisions under difficult circumstances. And that work will always matter more.”
He added: “Remember: keep calm and tackle hard.”
The extraordinary public clash between the president and his most senior intelligence officer has led to speculation about whether Mr Trump will fire any top officials in the coming weeks.
Scrutiny has especially fallen on Rod Rosenstein, the US deputy attorney general who oversees the official investigation into Russian election meddling.
He was among those criticised in the memo for securing a wiretap on Carter Page, a Trump campaign aide, without revealing alleged flaws in the intelligence it was based on.
Mr Rosenstein has the power to set the scope of the Russian investigation and can even fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the inquiries.
Mr Trump has criticised him before and on Friday refused to say whether he had confidence in Mr Rosenstein, saying simply when asked: "You figure that one out."
This memo totally vindicates “Trump” in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2018
Attacks from Republicans have followed. One advert from a fringe Republican group dubbed him a “weak careerist”, adding: “It’s time for Rod Rosenstein to do his job, or resign.”
A Republican congressman, Paul Gosar of Arizona, said Mr Rosenstein and other “traitors to our nation” should face criminal prosecution.
Leading Democrats in turn have written a letter to Mr Trump warning that firing Mr Rosenstein or Mr Mueller would trigger a "constitutional crisis" not seen since Richard Nixon’s presidency.
