A plurality of voters believe that Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, has engaged in corrupt business dealings, according to a new poll.
The Washington Examiner/YouGov poll found that 45% of respondents believe Hunter Biden has engaged in business corruption, while 32% said they believe he has not. This includes 91% of Republicans and 45% of independents. Just 27% of independents said Hunter Biden has not engaged in corrupt business practices.
Only 11% of Democrats agree, however. A large majority of Democrats, 57%, said Hunter Biden has not been involved in corrupt business dealings.
Voters are split on how important Hunter Biden’s business activities are to their vote, with 39% saying it was not at all important and 32% saying it is very important. This tends to break down along partisan lines. Among Republicans, 68% say corruption allegations against Hunter Biden are important to their vote, while 67% of Democrats say they are not important at all.
Independents are split, with 36% saying the corruption charges are not at all important to their vote and 30% saying they consider it very important.
Hunter Biden has been accused of leveraging his father’s political influence to win lucrative business deals in foreign countries, including with entities linked with the Chinese Communist Party. Hunter Biden was also paid by Burisma, a controversial energy company in Ukraine, while his father was vice president and serving as the Obama administration’s point man for Ukrainian policy.
Emails obtained by the New York Post purport to show that Hunter Biden introduced the then vice president to a Ukrainian businessman. Social media companies restricted users’ ability to share the story, but President Trump has repeatedly raised questions about Hunter Biden’s Ukraine business dealings and whether Joe Biden knew anything about them.
“They even have a statement that we have to give 10% to the big man,” Trump said at the final presidential debate. “You’re the big man, I think. I don’t know, maybe you’re not. But you’re the big man, I think. Your son said that we have to give 10% to the big man. Joe, what’s that all about?”
In the first debate, Trump charged, “Hunter got thrown out of the military. He was thrown out, dishonorably discharged for cocaine use. And he didn’t have a job until you became vice president. Once you became vice president, he made a fortune in Ukraine, in China, in Moscow, and various other places.”
Joe Biden shot back: “That is simply not true. My son, like a lot of people, like a lot of people you know, had a drug problem. He’s overtaken it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him.”
A previous Washington Examiner/YouGov poll showed public skepticism about the former vice president’s defense of his son, though Democrats overwhelmingly believe him.
Trump went so far in his efforts to expose Hunter Biden’s Burisma ties that he was impeached, in large part for asking if Ukrainian officials would investigate while delaying military aid to the country. The Senate voted to acquit Trump earlier this year.
The latest Washington Examiner/YouGov poll sample is 1,194 registered voters interviewed from Oct. 26 to Oct. 27, and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
