President Trump reportedly told his advisers last week that he would start worrying if national polls showed more than 50 percent of Americans supporting his impeachment. Five surveys released in the past two days show that public support for Trump’s impeachment is approaching a majority — and rising.
The polls were taken after the release of a memo summarizing a phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, the basis for the impeachment inquiry launched last week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but before a flurry of developments late Monday afternoon gave added impetus to the investigation. Those included a report that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was among those who listened in on Trump’s July 25 call and the news that Trump also pressured Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for information that could help discredit former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
The surveys were framed slightly differently — some asking about support for the inquiry, others about impeachment outright — and the results varied, but in all cases the trends were unfavorable to the president.
- A CBS News poll found that 55 percent of Americans support the impeachment inquiry, while 45 percent disapprove. Among Democrats, 87 percent support the inquiry versus 13 percent who do not. Among Republicans, 23 percent support the impeachment inquiry, while 77 percent do not. In terms of Trump’s impeachment, 42 percent of those polled believe he deserves to be impeached, while 36 percent believe he does not. About a quarter (22 percent) feel it’s too soon to say.
- A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 45 percent of American adults believe Trump should be impeached, up from 37 percent who did a week ago. The survey found that 41 percent believe he should not be impeached; 15 percent said they “don’t know.” Among Democrats, 74 percent said Trump should be impeached — up 8 points over the past week — while 13 percent of Republicans said they supported impeachment, up 3 points.
- A CNN poll found that 47 percent believe Trump “should be impeached and removed from office,” up from 41 percent in May. The survey found that 45 percent disagree, down from 54 percent in the May poll. Part of the shift can be attributed to younger Republicans. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents under age 50, support for impeaching Trump and removing him from office has risen from 9 percent in May to 22 percent now, CNN’s poll found, while views among older Republicans and Republican leaners have held about even.
- A Quinnipiac poll showed a split (47 percent to 47 percent) among voters who support impeaching and removing President Trump from office and those who do not. But it represented a 10-point jump in support for his impeachment and removal compared with last week, when the same survey found just 37 percent supported it, compared with 57 percent who did not. The poll also asked respondents whether they thought Trump believes he is above the law. A majority (56 percent) said yes; 42 percent said no.
- A Monmouth University poll found support for Trump’s impeachment (44 percent) up 9 points since August, when just 35 percent supported it. Monmouth’s survey was the only one that found a majority (52 percent) not supporting the president’s impeachment.
