POLL FINDS MOST AMERICANS FAVOR IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY OF TRUMP
A majority of Americans say they endorse the decision by House Democrats to begin an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, and nearly half of all adults also say the House should take the additional step and recommend that the president be removed from office, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll.
The findings indicate that public opinion has shifted in favor of impeachment proceedings in recent weeks as information has been released about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian government officials to undertake an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 campaign rival, and Biden’s son Hunter.
Previous Post-Schar School or Post-ABC News polls taken at different points throughout this year found majorities of Americans opposing the start of an impeachment proceeding, with 37% to 41% saying they favored such a step.
The new poll finds that, by a margin of 58% to 38%, Americans say the House was correct to undertake the inquiry.
Among all adults, 49% say the House should take the more significant step to impeach the president and call for his removal from office. Another 6% say they back the start of the inquiry but do not favor removing Trump from office, with the remainder undecided. The results among registered voters are almost identical.
The poll was conducted by The Washington Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
The survey was administered by telephone Oct. 1-6 among a random national sample of 1,007 adults — 69% of whom were reached on cellphones and 31% on land lines. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The findings highlight the partisan divisions that surround the Trump presidency and any impeachment inquiry, but also the degree to which there are defections among Republicans.
More than eight in 10 Democrats endorse the inquiry, and nearly eight in 10 favor a vote to recommend that Trump be removed from office. Among Republicans, roughly seven in 10 do not support the inquiry but almost three in 10 do, and almost one-fifth of Republicans say they favor a vote recommending his removal. Among independents, support for the impeachment inquiry hits 57%, with 49% saying the House should vote to remove Trump from office.