Editor’s note: This is another in a series of “WND/WENZEL POLLS” conducted exclusively for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies.
While some crucial details concerning the Benghazi terror attack that left four Americans dead still are being withheld, Americans already have a response.
Impeachment.
Almost 53 percent of respondents to a new poll say that President Obama should be impeached because of what he did, or didn’t do, regarding the terror attack on the U.S. facility in Libya.
“There is notable outrage about the Obama administration’s handling of the murders in Benghazi nearly a year ago, as 53 percent of all respondents said Obama should be impeached for his handling of this issue. Just 9 percent said they were unfamiliar with the Benghazi story, and among those who knew at least a little about it, 58 percent said Obama should be impeached,” said Fritz Wenzel of Wenzel Strategies, which did the survey Aug. 23-28. It carries a margin of error of 3.67 percentage points.
It was just the latest indicator of a powerful surge developing of citizens calling for the impeachment of Obama. Just a day ago, it was reported that many Americans believe Obama’s domestic policies also qualify him for impeachment.
For example, it has been revealed that under Obama’s watch, the Internal Revenue Service specifically targeted conservatives with harassment that probably curbed their influence on the 2012 election, which Obama won.
Asked whether Obama should be impeached for the IRS harassment, more than 55 percent said they yes, including 1 in 4 Democrats. More than 8 in 10 Republicans and half of the independents agreed.
Wenzel described the issue for Obama as “toxic.”
“There’s no doubt because almost everyone in America has had a personal interaction with the IRS, and it is among the most feared of government agencies, because of its enforcement powers. Abuse of this agency for political purposes has occurred before, but never to the extent apparently perpetrated by the Obama administration,” he said.
“Not tested in this question was the apparent sharing of tax return information by the IRS with other federal agencies, but one could reasonably conclude that with every layer of IRS abuse, the finding would likely get worse. Also not tested in this question is Obama’s characterization of this as a ‘phony scandal,’ but respondents may well have factored that in to their reaction to the question.”
Other administration scandals include the National Security Agency’s spying on Americans, the ‘Fast and Furious’ gun-walking program, the appointment of many “czars” and not defending the Defense of Marriage Act as required by law.
On the issue of Benghazi, Wenzel said: “While this story is complicated and has been made harder to understand in part because of the Obama administration’s obfuscation and stranglehold on information about what really was going on there last September that resulted in the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, it is remarkable that this story remains in the American consciousness.”
Wenzel said the “pro-impeachment finding speaks to a national frustration with this story and the cover-up that continues.”
“What is notable about this finding is that 17 percent of Democrats said they were not at all familiar with this story, while just 5 percent of Republicans and 5 percent of independents said the same thing,” he said. “This may well be a reflection of the current state of the American news media, as liberals go to certain news outlets for their news and conservatives go to other outlets. It was fairly well documented over the past year that liberal-leaning news outlets paid almost no attention to this story, while conservative-leaning outlets gave it a lot of attention.”
In the poll, 45 percent of respondents “strongly agree” with the idea of impeaching Obama because of his handling of Benghazi. Another 8 percent said they somewhat agree.
Even 20 percent of Democrats agreed, joining 77 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of independents.
Significant numbers of voters also want the president impeached for his orders to use drones to kill people and his actions in Libya.
“Americans remain strongly opposed to the use of drones to kill U.S. citizens overseas without those citizens receiving legal due process,” Wenzel said. “Slightly more than one in three respondents said they thought such killings of Americans was within the rights of the Obama administration, which is about the same as the finding in a survey conducted six months ago.
“However, asked whether Obama should be impeached for ordering such killings, 47 percent agreed he should be, up 9 percentage points from six months ago. This is a remarkable move in a fairly short period of time, given that this has not been a hot topic lately,” Wenzel said.
“Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul brought this issue to the national spotlight earlier this year, and it seems to have struck more people as simply wrong for the Obama administration to treat overseas Americans in this manner, regardless of their alleged crimes.”
On the topic of Libya, Wenzel said the divide was a little narrower.
“As the world waits to see what shoe is next to drop in Syria, Americans continue to be split over the Obama administration’s handling of the 2011 overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya,” Wenzel said. “While 47 percent said Obama should be impeached for pursuing that overthrow, 45 percent said he should not, a marginally worse result for the president compared to six months ago.
“This may be the closest corollary we have today to what Obama might be considering in Syria, and should Obama be leaning toward some sort of military action there, this poll results may foreshadow a very negative reaction here at home.”
Wenzel said the polls “demonstrate that while Obama retains a base of political support around the country, that base has shrunk to its smallest level since he took office, and given the growing list of missteps and scandals surrounding the Obama administration, Obama has a shrinking margin of error in terms of public support.”
“It appears as if much of America has stopped listening to him, and while many may continue to cross their fingers that things will go well in America under his leadership, the sense of malaise stemming from issue to issue seems to be spreading. Given this finding on Libya, it would be reasonable to conclude that public support for any substantial U.S. military action in Syria is a long shot at best.”
Wenzel said the survey doesn’t weigh the cumulative effect of the scandals of the Obama administration, “but it clearly shows that the nation has concluded that this president and his administration are intent on governing against the will of most of the country, and that there is significant resistance to them.”
“The public has nowhere near the full story on many of these issues, so it is reasonable to assume that public opinion will only skew more heavily against Obama in coming months and years,” he said.
Wenzel said that at a time when information is so easily moved, the full story of the Obama scandals will come out.
“Obama’s current job approval rating of 41 percent may be viewed in the future as only a fond memory as disclosures on these issues increase, and Americans understand the ramifications of these abuses,” he said.
See detailed results of survey questions:
