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Hunter’s ‘Laptop From Hell’ Is an Important Story, Voters Say

Nearly two-thirds of voters say the story of Hunter Biden’s lost laptop is important and believe President Joe Biden was probably involved in his son’s foreign business deals.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 66% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop containing emails about his business dealings is important, including 48% who think the story is Very Important. Thirty-one percent (31%) don’t believe the story is important, including 15% who say it’s Not At All important. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The New York Times last week admitted the authenticity of the emails found on a laptop that the president’s son abandoned in a Delaware computer repair shop. Sixty-five percent (65%) of voters believe it’s likely – including 48% who think it’s Very Likely – that Joe Biden was consulted about and perhaps profited from his son Hunter's overseas business deals including at least one involving a company in mainland China. Only 28% believe it’s unlikely Biden was consulted about his son’s foreign business dealings.

Forty-eight percent (48%) say if the media had fully reported the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 election, it’s unlikely Joe Biden would have been elected president. Forty-five percent (45%) don’t think the story would have changed the election results.

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The survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on March 21-22, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of voters say they have closely followed news reports about Hunter Biden, including 37% who have Very Closely followed news about the president’s son. Significantly more Republicans (51%) than Democrats (26%) have Very Closely followed news about Hunter Biden, as have 34% of voters not affiliated with either major party.

Seventy-five percent (75%) of Republicans, 26% of Democrats and 46% of unaffiliated voters believe the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop is Very Important. 

Seventy-three percent (73%) of Republicans, 23% of Democrats and 51% of unaffiliated voters believe it is Very Likely that Joe Biden was consulted about and perhaps profited from his son’s foreign business deals.

Only 23% of Republicans think it’s likely Joe Biden would have been elected president if the news media had fully reported the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, but 68% of Democrats think Biden would have been elected anyway, as do 41% of unaffiliated voters.

Majorities of every racial category – 67% of whites, 69% of black voters and 65% of other minorities – believe the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop is at least somewhat important.  Similarly, 67% of whites, 63% of black voters and 61% of other minorities believe it is at least somewhat likely that Joe Biden was consulted about and perhaps profited from his son’s foreign business deals.

Older voters are more likely than those under 40 to think it’s Very Likely that Joe Biden was involved in Hunter’s overseas business.

Middle-income voters are more likely to believe that Biden would not have been elected president if the media had fully reported the story about Hunter’s laptop.

Among voters who have been Very Closely following news about Hunter Biden, 65% don’t think it’s likely Joe Biden would have won the 2020 election if the media had fully reported the story about Hunter’s laptop.

President Biden’s policies have increased inflation, according to a majority of voters, who expect the issue to be important in November midterm elections.

With the midterm elections now less than eight months away, Republicans have an 11-point lead in their bid to recapture control of Congress.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to the public as well as to Platinum Members.

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The survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on March 21-22, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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