21% Think President Should Have Sole Authority To Order Drone Killings
Monday, February 11, 2013
The Obama administration recently acknowledged its policy of using drones to kill U.S. citizens abroad who have terrorist ties, prompting outrage across the political spectrum. Most voters don’t like the idea and some lawmakers have now proposed creation of a special court to review planned drone strikes by the president.
Just 36% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the American government’s use of unmanned drones to kill U.S. citizens in other countries who pose a terrorist threat. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 40% oppose government use of drones for this purpose. Twenty-three percent (23%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on February 8-9, 2013 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.