70% of voters want JFK assassination records release, poll shows
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President Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy settled in rear seats. Photo: Getty Images
More than 70% of voters want to see President Biden release the secret records of John F. Kennedy's assassination, according to a new poll.
Why it matters: About 16,000 documents about Kennedy's death have yet to be released, and, experts say, those documents contain the most sensitive material about the 35th president's shocking assassination.
Details: The poll — done by the Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi, who is a JFK assassination history expert — showed there's broad bipartisan support for Biden to release the records, per NBC News.
- It also showed Americans have varying beliefs about who was involved in Kennedy's death.
By the numbers: The poll found 71% of voters want the records released. Only 10% want to see the release delayed.
- Republicans (76%) were more supportive than Democrats (66%) of releasing the records.
- Most young people supported releasing the files, too. The 18-to-29 demographic had the highest percentage of support (84%) compared to other age groups.
- The majority of voters (50%) said they thought others besides Lee Harvey Oswald were involved in Kennedy's death.
- The majority of people surveyed in the poll (31%) said they thought the CIA was primarily responsible for planning Kennedy's assassination.
The big picture: The poll comes more than a month after a lawsuit filed in October looked to force the Biden administration and the National Archives to release all documents connected to the assassination.
- The lawsuit, which came from the Mary Ferrell Foundation, argued the government did not follow through with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which called to release JFK assassination records by 2017.
- Former President Trump extended the deadline in 2018, per CNN.
- In 2021, the White House under Biden postponed the release of the 16,000 documents due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- At the time, Biden asked the NARA to conduct a one-year review of the documents before releasing any more information.
What we're watching: Biden sent his memo on Dec. 15, meaning the deadline to release the documents is right around the corner.
Methodology: The poll was conducted from Nov. 14 to Nov. 22, 2022, with 2,000 completed interviews of adult registered voters. The poll had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
Go deeper:
Remembering JFK's assassination 54 years later
Biden, National Archives sued over unreleased JFK assassination records
