“Look At That Drop”: CNN’s Harry Enten is stunned by the decline in Americans’ trust in the FBI after J6

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten expressed surprise Monday at the significant decline in Americans’ trust in the FBI following the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.

President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he will nominate former Defense Secretary Chief of Staff Kash Patel as his FBI director. Enten suggested on CNN News Central that Patel’s potential reform agenda could resonate with the public because of the agency’s waning credibility among Americans. (RELATED: ‘Set up for success’: Here’s who will come out on top for Trump on national security)

REGARD:

“I think Patel has real reason to believe that Americans would agree to the changes he might make to the FBI, and there’s a reason why Donald Trump feels he can make that change,” said Ducks told CNN anchor Kate Bolduan. “That’s because the FBI is doing excellent or good work,” he read from the screen. “Look at the current trend line. You’re going back to 2014, right? It was 59% of Americans. Then 57% in 2019, 50% in 2022.”

“Look at where we are today. My goodness, goodness. Only 41% of Americans think the FBI is doing an excellent or good job. This is by far the lowest number this century,” he continued. “The bottom line is that there were obviously investigations into Donald Trump during the Trump administration and you could see a slight decline every now and then after January 6th. Look at this decline, 50% now 41%. My goodness, Kate Bolduan.”

Bolduan then asked Enten how Americans view the FBI “along party lines,” with Enten showing a graphic showing just over a quarter of Republicans view the agency favorably.

“Oh my God!” Bolduan exclaimed.

“Is the FBI doing an ‘excellent or good job’ among Republicans – that’s where you really see the decline. Go back to 2014… It was 62%. In 2019, look at this, 46%. 2022, 29%. Now we’re at the lowest point this century among Republicans at 26%,” Enten said. “That’s a decline of more than half since 2014. Again, you saw some of that decline during the Trump administration. You know, he obviously replaced (former FBI Director) James Comey, and then you really see it after January 6th, 29%. And now 26%. That’s a huge decline among Republicans.”

The data reporter also found that Democrats’ trust in the FBI rose from 54% in 2014 to 79% in 2022 before falling to 67% in 2024.

“The bottom line is: Republicans have much less trust in the FBI, Democrats have more trust, even though the number of people who trust the FBI now and think it ‘does an excellent or good job’ is lower than it was two years ago .” before,” he said. “And that’s why we have the lowest percentage of Americans overall this century who believe the FBI is doing an excellent or good job.”

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