Americans are evenly divided over whether Attorney General William Barr should be forced to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, according to a Hill-HarrisX poll released on Friday.
The survey found that 38 percent of registered voters believe the House should be able to force him to testify. Thirty-eight percent believed Barr should be able to refuse to testify until both parties came to an understanding on the format of the hearing. Twenty-four percent of respondents were unsure.
The poll also found a sharp partisan split over whether Barr should be forced to give testimony. Most Republicans, 55 percent, believed that Barr should be able to decline to testify, while 60 percent of Democrats said Barr should be forced to testify.
Independent voters were divided. A plurality of 44 percent said that Barr should not have to testify. Thirty-two percent believed Barr should be compelled to testify, 24 percent were unsure.
House Democrats were angered after Barr declined to appear before Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, citing concerns about the format. Democrats wanted the attorney general to answer questions from committee staff attorneys in addition to lawmakers.
Barr a day before, on Wednesday, had testified before the GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee.
Barr has also missed deadline to submit an unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to the House. On Friday, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) offered an ultimatum, giving the Department of Justice until Monday to turn over the full report and threatening to hold Barr in contempt.
Tensions have flared this week over Barr’s handling of the Mueller report.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday accused Barr of committing a crime, alleging that he lied before Congress.
Barr previously testified to Congress that he had not heard of any reservations from special counsel Robert Mueller over a letter the attorney general drafted summarizing the findings of his Russia probe.
But just hours before he testified before the Senate on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that Mueller had written to Barr in March sharing concerns about the summary.
The Hill-HarrisX survey was conduced online from May 2-3 among a statistically representative panel 1,001 registered voters. It has a 3.1 percentage point sampling margin of error and a 95 percent confidence level.
—Philip Wang
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