Majority of Americans back impeachment inquiry, new polls show
The White House says the impeachment inquiry into President Trump is “baseless” and “unconstitutional.” Most Americans disagree.
Five new national polls released in the past two days show at least 50 percent of respondents support the House probe, which was triggered by a whistleblower’s complaint against Trump over his repeated requests for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
All five surveys found more Americans back the impeachment inquiry than do not. And one, conducted by Fox News, showed a majority support Trump’s impeachment and the next step — conviction by the Senate and removal from office.
• An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found 55 percent of Americans believe that Trump’s actions “are a serious matter and merit an impeachment inquiry,” compared with 39 percent who do not. (Six percent were not sure.) What’s more, nearly a quarter of those polled (24 percent) say there is already enough evidence for Congress to impeach Trump and remove him from office.
• A Quinnipiac poll found 53 percent of registered voters support the impeachment inquiry, compared with 43 percent who do not. (Four percent were undecided.) The same survey found voters virtually split on Trump’s removal from office, with 45 percent saying he should be impeached and removed and 49 percent opposing the idea — a divide that falls within the poll’s margin of error.
• A Washington Post–Schar School poll found 58 percent of Americans endorse the decision by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to begin a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump, compared with 38 percent who do not. The same survey showed nearly half (49 percent) of the respondents believe the president should be removed from office, while 44 percent do not. The remaining 7 percent say they are undecided about his fate.
• A Politico/Morning Consult poll found 50 percent of registered voters would support removing Trump from office, while 43 percent oppose the idea. Again, 7 percent of voters were undecided. Oddly, the survey found a higher percentage of respondents “strongly” supporting Trump’s removal (40 percent) than “strongly” supporting the inquiry itself (38 percent).
• A Fox News poll released late Wednesday found 51 percent of registered voters want to see Trump impeached and removed from office, a record high for the network's survey, compared to 40 percent who do not. The last time Fox News polled voters on impeachment — in July — 42 percent of respondents favored impeachment and removal, compared to 45 percent who did not.
The latest polls were conducted following a flurry of developments in the impeachment probe. Last week, it was reported that Trump also pressured Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for information in an effort to discredit former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Then, while speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, Trump called on China to investigate the Bidens.
The new surveys come on the heels of a half-dozen others that not only showed growing support for the impeachment inquiry but also support for the president’s removal from office.
Early Tuesday, the State Department blocked Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union and a central player in the Ukraine controversy, from testifying before House committees probing impeachment. Defending the move on Twitter, Trump called the Democrat-led panels a “totally compromised kangaroo court.” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said he would consider it “additional strong evidence of obstruction.”
The White House then sent an eight-page letter to Pelosi calling the impeachment inquiry unconstitutional, setting up a legal showdown between Trump and Congress.
On Twitter Wednesday, Trump responded to one impeachment data point.
"Only 25 percent want the President Impeached, which is pretty low considering the volume of Fake News coverage, but pretty high considering the fact that I did NOTHING wrong," Trump tweeted. "It is all just a continuation of the greatest Scam and Witch Hunt in the history of our Country!"
The president was likely referring to the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, which found 24 percent support his impeachment and removal from office.
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