COMEY’S LEGACY: Pew Poll: Public Sours On The FBI.

The Pew Research Center finds that favorable views of the FBI have dropped 16 percentage points among Republicans since early 2017, shortly before the president took office. What’s more, negative views of the bureau have doubled within the party during the same period of time.

Just 49 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents now say they have a positive opinion of the bureau, while 44 percent give it negative marks.

That’s compared with 65 percent of Republicans who gave the FBI a thumbs up just 18 months ago (and 21 percent who disagreed) — about a three-to-one margin.

Among Democrats, views of the FBI have remained about stable since last year, with more the three-quarters viewing the bureau favorably both last year and in the latest poll.

The problem for the Bureau is that support has declined the most among those who used to be its most reliable supporters.