Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of the way President Barack Obama has handled the aftermath of last September's attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and many think that the administration intentionally misled the American people about the attack, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.
The poll found that 42 percent of Americans said they disapprove of the way it has been handled, while 27 percent said they approve. In another HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted last October, respondents disapproved by a similar margin, 41 percent to 32 percent.
The issue saw division along party lines, with the vast majority of Republicans disapproving (78 percent to 4 percent) and the majority of Democrats approving (56 percent to 7 percent). Independents were more likely to say that they disapproved, by a 47 percent to 19 percent margin.
By a 42 percent to 33 percent margin, more said the Obama administration "deliberately misled" the public on the issue than those who said the administration "shared facts as they became available." Another 25 percent said they weren't sure.
The new poll was conducted before new information came to light Friday about the State Department pushing for revisions to the initial talking points given to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice after the attack occurred in September.
A combined 40 percent of respondents said that they are either very confident (19 percent) or somewhat confident (21 percent) that the Obama administration and State Department are taking the right steps to prevent similar attacks in the future, while a combined 46 percent said that they were not very confident (16 percent) or not at all confident (30 percent).
The new poll also suggests that many Americans are paying relatively close attention to news about the attack and its aftermath. Fifty percent of respondents said that they've heard a lot about it, 33 percent have heard a little, and 12 percent have heard nothing at all. Republicans in the poll were the most likely to say that they had heard a lot, at 58 percent, which could explain in part the president's poor approval rating on the issue.
The poll was conducted May 7-8 among 1,000 adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling.
Note: A previous version of this story contained a widget that displayed incorrect results of a reader poll for some readers due to a technical glitch. The widget has been removed to avoid confusion.
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