Poll: Majority Question Biden's Ability to Manage Terror Threats

A new poll by Rasmussen this week draws two conclusions about President Joe Biden and terrorism:

Most voters view domestic terrorism as a greater danger to America than foreign threats, the poll finds. And most don’t have much much confidence that Biden can cope with the threat.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters asked how confident they were in Biden’s ability to handle terrorist threats in the United States.

A total of 52 percent of the respondents said they were either “not very” confident, or “not at all” confident.

Meanwhile just 30 percent said they were “very” confident in his ability to handle such a crisis, and 16 percent said they were just “somewhat” confident, the survey reported.

Unsurprisingly, the poll broke down clearly along partisan lines with 54 percent of Democrats supporting Biden’s abilities and only 10 percent of Republicans and 29 percent of unaffiliated voters agreeing.

Some 65 percent of Republicans said they were not confident in Biden at all along with 15 percent of Democrats and 42 percent of unaffiliated voters, according to the survey.

The polling took place on April 29 and May 2; it was done by Pulse Opinion research, LLC, which conducts field work for the organization.

Rasmussen said the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus three points and a 95 percent “level of confidence.”

Another majority of respondents, 58 percent, said they feel domestic terrorism is a greater threat to the nation than foreign terrorism (32 percent).

The other 10 percent said they were not sure what the greater threat was.

Democrats were 70 percent more likely to conclude domestic terrorism is the biggest threat while Republicans were 42 percent more likely to agree, as were 61 percent of unaffiliated voters.

Some 48 percent of those surveyed said that the threat of terrorism has increased since Biden took office on Jan. 20, with 29 percent believing it has remained the same and just 14 percent saying it has gone down since the inauguration.

Republicans were twice as likely as Democrats to say the threat has increased, 68-29 percent, while unaffiliated voters not connected to either party were 47 percent more likely to say the threat has increased, according to the survey.

Respondent were narrowly split on deciding if the Capitol siege on Jan. 6 was terrorism, according to the survey.

Forty-six percent said it was an act of terrorism and 45 percent said it was not.

Among unaffiliated voters, the split was just as narrow with 47 percent saying it was terrorism and 45 percent saying it was not.