71% of Americans support presidents placing hand on Bible during inauguration, poll finds

Most Americans support the inclusion of the Bible in the swearing-in ceremony at presidential inaugurations, according to a new survey released hours before President Donald Trump made headlines for not placing his hand on the Bible during the oath of office Monday.
Rasmussen Reports released the poll documenting the opinions of 1,330 likely U.S. voters on the appropriateness of having a president place his hand on the Bible during his inauguration ceremony. Overall, 71% of respondents considered the practice appropriate, while 15% disagreed and 14% described themselves as undecided on the matter.
Conducted from Jan. 13-15, the data has an error margin of +/-3 percentage points.
A breakdown of results by demographic subgroup reveals support for the tradition extends across all political persuasions, highest among Republicans (88%), followed by unaffiliated voters (67%) and Democrats (59%).
The practice also received the majority of support from all racial demographics, the highest among whites (74%). The majority of respondents belonging to other races (68%), blacks (67%) and Hispanics (63%) took the same view.
Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States on Monday. Although he placed his hands on two Bibles during his first inauguration in 2017, the president did not put his hand on the Bible during his second inauguration.
Social media users speculated that he did not do so because he did not see the Bibles included in the ceremony as U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts began administering the oath of office before members of the Trump family were in place.
By the time First Lady Melania Trump, who was holding both Bibles included in the ceremony, arrived next to her husband, he was already taking the oath. The president’s inaugural committee had previously announced that the Bibles present in this year’s ceremony included one that President Abraham Lincoln placed his hand on during his first inauguration in 1861 as the U.S. was on the brink of civil war and one given to Trump by his late mother when he was nine years old.
While Monday’s poll showed that Americans were largely in agreement about the appropriateness of the tradition, partisan divides materialized in the responses to other questions included in the survey.
Overall, 42% of Americans believe that former President Joe Biden kept his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” during his term in office, which expired Monday. On the other hand, 48% of Americans think that Biden failed to uphold his oath.
Most Democrats (76%) believe that Biden kept his oath of office compared to just 34% of unaffiliated voters and 13% of Republicans.
Looking ahead, voters had mixed views about whether or not Trump would keep his oath of office. Among all voters, 58% predicted that Trump would uphold his constitutional oath, while 40% disagreed. While most Republicans (91%) and unaffiliated voters (61%) expressed confidence that Trump would uphold his oath, only 25% of Democrats said the same.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com