Fox News Poll: Majorities have confidence in CIA, FBI, and SCOTUS

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Majorities of voters have faith in U.S. intelligence agencies and the Supreme Court, while less than half feel that way about the media, Congress, and Donald Trump, according to the latest Fox News Poll conducted October 6-8.

Almost 7 in 10 voters have confidence in the FBI (69 percent), Supreme Court (68 percent), and the CIA (66 percent), according to the latest Fox News Poll.

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At the same time, confidence in each has declined over the last couple of years.  For example, confidence in the FBI hit a high of 80 percent in February 2017.  That fell to 73 percent in 2018 and now stands at 69 percent.   Faith in the Supreme Court went from 83 percent in 2017 to 76 percent last year to 68 percent in the new poll.  For the CIA, 73 percent were confident in 2017, 70 percent in 2018 and 66 percent today.

The declines come from different groups of partisans. GOP confidence in the FBI is down 22 points, while Democrats and independents have grown less confident in the Supreme Court by 25 and 21 points respectively since 2017.

Faith in the CIA dropped 10 points among both Democrats and Republicans compared to two years ago.

Views on the media have held steady since last year at 47 percent confident, up slightly from 44 percent in 2017.

Democrats are 47 points more likely than Republicans to have faith in the news media (71 vs. 24 percent).  While it isn’t new for these views to be polarized -- like many issues -- it’s more divided now than in the past.  In 2014, more Democrats than Republicans had faith in the media by 22 points (54 vs. 32 percent), while in 2003 it was by 16 points (62 vs. 46 percent).

More than twice as many independents lack confidence in the media (66 percent) as have confidence in it (31 percent).

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While only about one in five voters approve of the job Congress is doing, some 45 percent have confidence in the institution.  Last year, 44 percent had confidence in Congress.  It was 53 percent in 2017. 

Confidence in Donald Trump stands at 43 percent, which matches his 43 percent approval rating (55 percent disapprove).  Forty-six percent had confidence in Trump in 2018, and it was 45 percent in 2017.

Conducted October 6-8, 2019 under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with 1,003 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide who spoke with live interviewers on both landlines and cellphones.  The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.