While partisan talking heads bat around their opinions on Joe Biden’s classified documents scandal, what do the American people think? A new poll from Quinnipiac, which I believe is the first major survey to cover the subject, offers some insight into that question.

To hear the press and the raving women on The View tell it, classified material being found in Joe Biden’s garage (among other places) is no big deal. Sure, it’s a crime that he took and possessed it, but he handled things the “right way,” which is apparently fessing up six years after the fact, at the most politically opportune moment.

Unfortunately for Biden and his defenders, that’s a minority view. In fact, nearly three-quarters of respondents to Quinnipiac’s survey say the discovery of the documents is very serious or somewhat serious.

woof pic.twitter.com/5kzQernLMV

— kaitlin (@thefactualprep) January 18, 2023

The White House is currently learning the hard way that trying to change the subject and obfuscating from basic questions is not how to make a scandal go away. Rather, it tends to exacerbate the situation, especially when even normally friendly mainstream press reporters are fed up with the lies.

When Karine Jean-Pierre, being perhaps the worst press secretary since the invention of the position, is putting on performances like this, is it any wonder she and her comms team are losing the PR battle?

Jean-Pierre: "I am going to refer you to the DOJ."

Reporter: "I'm simply asking you to comment on the person you work for."

Jean-Pierre: "I just commented. We're moving on. I already answered your question."

Reporter: "You really didn't."

Jean-Pierre: "That's your opinion." pic.twitter.com/gxqs6rgXpz

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 18, 2023

Ironically, Biden and his supporters have no one to blame but themselves for the public’s view of the president’s raging scandal. Had they not lost their minds over Donald Trump’s alleged possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, declaring him a traitor who harmed national security, perhaps people would be more apt to shrug at Biden’s actions? One should always be careful what standards they set lest they be held to them.

Putting that aside, what should anger Republicans the most about this poll is what it says about the electoral politics of the situation. If this poll is an accurate representation of the public, Biden’s mishandling of classified documents would have absolutely been a liability heading into the 2022 mid-terms. We’ll never know how much, though, because the White House, the National Archives, and the DOJ chose to cover the entire ordeal up, only admitting to its existence once leaks forced them to. That decision was obviously deliberate and another example of how government entities selectively leak to influence elections.

With the 2022 election in the books, the gambit paid off, and it’s likely this scandal will fade long before the presidential race kicks off. That’s the reality of living in a country where federal law enforcement work hand in glove with one political party to push certain outcomes.