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 Fifty-four percent of the 598 Democrats surveyed said they
believed the U.S. House of Representatives investigation into the
attacks and Clinton's actions was entirely or mostly about
discrediting the former U.S. secretary of state.
Twelve percent of Democrats surveyed online from Oct. 16-19 said the
hearings were mostly a valid investigation that had become
politicized. Five percent said the probe, which uncovered Clinton's
use of a private email account and a private email server while she
ran the State Department, was completely valid.
Other Democrats said they had either not heard of the issue or did
not care about it.
The sense among Democrats that politics motivated the Republican
investigation could help neutralize questions about Clinton's emails
during the primary process to pick the party's nominee for the
November 2016 election.
"I feel like the questions have already been answered, and that this
is something that they should have let go of a long time ago," Diana
Harper, a 70-year-old Arizona Democrat, said of the probe in a
telephone interview.
 The 2012 attacks resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including
the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. Clinton testified
before Congress about the incident in 2013.
This week, she will appear before a special House panel
investigating the incident to answer questions about Benghazi and
her use of the private email account while in office.
Republicans on the Benghazi panel say they want to answer questions,
not score political points. But other Republicans, most notably No.
2 House Republican Kevin McCarthy, made public comments speculating
about how the panel's work affected Clinton's poll numbers.
Clinton said in an interview with CNN on Friday that she had already
answered questions about Benghazi and that the panel had become a
"partisan arm" of the Republican Party.
In another recent Reuters poll, she led the Democratic field with
about 49 percent. Liberal U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont
came in second, with 26 percent.
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Harper, who is leaning toward voting for Clinton, said she initially
thought Clinton's email setup might not have been secure. After the
State Department began releasing the emails, Harper said she decided
Republicans were trying to "discredit the front-runner."
Clinton could face skepticism in a general election if she is the
Democratic nominee, the poll on the Benghazi hearings found. About
40 percent of independents said the hearings were mostly or
completely valid.
"Is it political? Well yeah, it's Congress; it's always political,"
Richard Witt, a 58-year-old independent from Omaha, Nebraska, said
in a phone interview. "But that doesn't belie the fact that there
are legitimate issues that are being investigated."
Witt, who is retired from the military, said he had concerns about
how the State Department handled classified information on Clinton's
watch.
The poll included 1,517 Americans, including the 598 Democrats, and
had a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of plus or minus
2.9 percentage points.
Participants from all parties were split evenly on whether the issue
would hurt Clinton. Fifty-seven percent of Democrats said it would
not, while 43 percent said it would.
The poll showed little danger to Republicans pursuing the probe.
Eighty-six percent of respondents said the hearings would not hurt
the party, while only 14 percent said it would.
(Reporting by Emily Stephenson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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