Opinion of FBI Falls Along Partisan Lines

A new Pew survey shows that since 2017 the favorability of the FBI has begun to fall along partisan lines, with that gap only widening in the past year and half. Before this divergence, the FBI was viewed favorably regardless of the partisan lean of respondents. Most Americans still view the FBI positively putting it on-par with other federal institutions like the Census Bureau.

Americans’ changing views of these institutions are influenced by the news surrounding these bureaus. Notably the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been swept up in the controversies surrounding the 2016 presidential election, politicizing the agency since then.