50 percent of Americans want Senate to convict Trump in impeachment trial: poll

Half of Americans want the Senate to convict former President Trump in next week’s impeachment trial, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

Fifty percent of Americans polled said Trump should be convicted, while 45 percent said he should be acquitted. The results of the poll were divided along party lines, with 86 percent of Democrats and just 12 percent of Republicans calling for a conviction. Independents narrowly favored a conviction by a 49-45 margin. 

“The impeachment question is framed by two distinctly different versions of history and offers as vivid an example of the chasm between Republicans and Democrats as you can find,” said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy. 

The results mirror of those of a Marist University poll released this week that showed 50 percent of Americans backing conviction. In that poll, 41 percent of respondents said Trump should be acquitted.

Trump is being tried after the House impeached him last month over his role in egging on the mob that later ransacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6., the day Congress certified the Electoral College tally showing President Biden winning the White House race.

Trump urged supporters in a speech before the riot to “walk down to the Capitol” and insisted that they “will never take our country back with weakness.” 

The remarks and the subsequent insurrection sparked furor on both sides of the aisle, but it appears unlikely Trump will be convicted. Forty-five Senate Republicans voted last week to approve a measure saying that trying a president who’s no longer in office would be unconstitutional, with just five saying a trial would be constitutional. Democrats would need 17 Republicans to join them for a conviction. 

The Quinnipiac University poll surveyed 1,075 adults from Jan. 28-Feb. 1 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.