POLL: Americans support Trump impeachment inquiry, worry about blowback

Most Americans support launching an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, according to a new Insider poll, but they worry about the repercussions.

A formal impeachment inquiry of Trump was announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday. It came in the wake of a whistleblower complaint from an intelligence official alleging that Trump had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

When asked, “Impeachment is the first step in the process of removing a president from office. Do you think the House of Representatives should impeach President Trump?”

Respondents were considerably more in favor than has been seen in other polling recently. However, it’s unclear if this is a result of sampling, phrasing, or of a genuine shift in opinion.

• Overall, 45% of respondents supported impeachment, of which 29% of respondents said “strongly.”
• Overall 30% of respondents opposed impeachment, with 20% of respondents saying “strongly.”
• 25% did not know, or neither supported nor opposed an impeachment.

Majorities think launching an inquiry is the right thing to do, and most aren’t familiar with the Ukraine situation.

The numbers become clearer when it comes to merely launching a formal impeachment inquiry, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that congressional Democrats intended to do earlier this week.

We asked, “Do you believe launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump for soliciting foreign interference in a US election is the right thing to do?”

• 33% said “definitely yes.”
• 20% said “probably yes.”
• 15% said “probably not.”
• 18% said “definitely not.”

That’s a significant majority in favor of launching the probe. Overall, Americans are generally unfamiliar with the incident in question.

We also asked, “How familiar would you say you are with the situation stemming from President Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky related to Democratic candidate Joe Biden?”

Just 33% of respondents said they were “extremely” or “very” familiar.

If Trump is found to have done what the whistleblower said he did, large majorities of Americans back serious consequences.

Respondents were asked, “What should the consequences be for a public official who encourages a foreign power to intervene in an upcoming domestic election in their favor?” before they were asked about more in-depth detail of the impeachment inquiry.

The results are squarely unambiguous:

• Merely 6% said “I do not think that warrants any action.”
• 11% said “I think the matter should be looked into but don’t see any immediate issue.”
• 19% said “I think that merits investigation and possibly censure, penalties or discipline.”
• 49% said “I think that merits investigation and possibly removal from office.”

That majority in favor of serious consequences for that hypothetical action holds among those who said that their political beliefs were conservative: 26% said it’d merit investigation and possible discipline, and 25% said it’d merit investigation and possible removal.

There’s a chance this blows back on Democrats electorally.

Democrats have cast their lot in with impeachment, but do so at their peril.

While majorities believe launching an impeachment inquiry is the right thing to do, fewer see electoral upside for Democrats in doing so.

We asked, “Do you believe launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump will overall work out in Democrats’ favor electorally?”

• 10% said “definitely would.”
• 22% said “probably would.”
• 24% said “probably would not.”
• 19% said “definitely would not.”

This paints an interesting series of battle lines for the 753 respondents who knew their opinion about both the rectitude and electoral peril of an impeachment inquiry.

Here’s how they view the exercise:

• 38% think an inquiry is the right thing to do and will help Democrats electorally.
• 19% think an inquiry is the right thing to do, but will hurt Democrats electorally.
• 7% think an inquiry is the wrong thing to do, but will help Democrats electorally.
• 37% think an inquiry is the wrong thing to do and will hurt Democrats electorally.

Read more:

A formal impeachment inquiry has been launched: Here’s everything we know about the whistleblower complaint and Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s president

30 Republican Senators might vote to impeach Trump if the ballot were secret, GOP source says

Trump aides quickly regretted publishing the Ukraine call that has intensified calls for his impeachment, report says

SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn’t try to weight its sample based on race or income. Total 1,081 respondents collected September 25-26, 2019, a margin of error plus or minus 3.04 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.