A Monmouth University poll published Thursday shows a majority of Americans oppose attempts to impeach President Trump, while Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee move forward with the idea anyway.
“The latest Monmouth University Poll finds that about one-fifth of those who disapprove of Trump’s job performance join nearly all of those who approve of the president to say that moving ahead with an impeachment inquiry is a bad idea,” the pollster reports.
NATIONAL POLL: 35% support removing @realDonaldTrump from office by impeachment. 59% oppose.
Sup/Opp by party
REP – 2% / 94%
IND – 30% / 64%
DEM – 69% / 25%https://t.co/dWstTDmdyI pic.twitter.com/waZiByFCtt— MonmouthPoll (@MonmouthPoll) August 22, 2019
“Only 1-in-5 Americans think that an impeachment trial would actually lead to Trump’s removal from office. Opinion is mixed in terms of how this could impact the 2020 elections, but there are some indications in the poll that surviving an impeachment trial could provide a small net boost for Trump’s reelection effort.”
Data shows support for impeachment is at its lowest level since Monmouth University began asking about the possibility two years ago, with a mere 35 percent of Americans backing the idea of forcing Trump from office, compared to 59 percent who oppose.
“Support from the president’s removal via impeachment has ranged between 35% and 42% since Monmouth started asking the question in July 2017, with the current results at the low end of that range,” Monmouth reports. “Opposition to impeachment has been between 53% and 59% during the same time.”
A majority of Americans even oppose the House Judiciary Committee’s recent move to conduct an inquiry into impeachment, with 51 percent opposed. Of course, 72 percent of Democrats want to impeach Trump, while only 39 percent of independents and 8 percent of Republicans are on board.
“Of those who disapprove of the president’s job performance, fully two-thirds (69%) say it is a good idea to take this step (of a congressional inquiry), while just over 1-in-5 (22%) disagree.”
The poll pegged Trump’s overall job approval rating at 40 percent, or 13 percentage points fewer than those who approve. Those figures are largely unchanged over the last month and have fluctuated little in the last year.
“Over the past 12 months, the president’s approval rating has ranged between 49% and 54%,” Monmouth reports. “The usual demographic clefts remain present – men are divided on the president’s job performance (49% approve and 43% disapprove) while women are decidedly negative (31% approve and 62% disapprove). White Americans without a college degree tend to approve of Trump (55% approve and 37% disapprove), while the reverse is true among white college graduates (38% approve and 57% disapprove).”
Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray offered his assessment.
“Donald Trump is not a popular president by most measures, but the appetite for impeachment remains low,” he said. “There’s a small segment of the public who want Trump removed from office but feel the political calculus of an impeachment trial would not be the smartest move.
“They are outnumbered, though, by others who disapprove of Trump and feel that putting his misdeeds on the record is worth the effort even if the prospect of ousting him is doubtful,” he said.
Most of the 800 adults polled between August 16 and 20 don’t believe the Senate would actually vote to oust Trump, even if the House passed articles of impeachment. Only one in five think it would happen, though 57 percent of those polled told Monmouth they’d prefer someone else in the White House.
“Impeachment may not earn widespread support, but that does not mean most voters want to see Trump remain in office,” Murray said. “It is just that the ballot box seems to be their preferred way to achieve his ouster.”
Thirty-nine percent of folks polled said they want Trump to be re-elected in 2020.
Leave a Comment
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.