The Democratic-led impeachment inquiry into President Trump tops the list of most important stories of 2019, according to a new Hill-HarrisX poll released on Wednesday.
In the survey, 37 percent of registered voters cited the inquiry into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine as the most important political news story of the year from among 8 possibilities.
The situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, cited by 15 percent of respondents, was the second-most popular news story.
Another 13 percent named special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia and the Trump campaign in the 2016 election.
The government shutdown that kicked off the start of 2019 received 8 percent, as did Trump’s ongoing trade war with China and the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Just 5 percent of voters named the Democratic presidential primary as the top story.
The survey underscores just how prominent a role impeachment could play in the 2020 election.
Trump has repeatedly used the impeachment inquiry to fire up his base heading into 2020, often casting it as an attack on his supporters.
While the House voted to impeach him on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Trump held a campaign event in Michigan simultaneously, where he blasted Democrats for what he called “an illegal, unconstitutional and partisan impeachment.”
“This lawless, partisan impeachment is a political suicide march for the Democrat Party,” he told a raucous crowd.
The historic impeachment vote culminated a months-long investigation that was initially sparked by a whistleblower’s complaint, alleging that Trump had pressured Ukraine to open investigations into his political rivals that would have given him an edge in the general election.
Trump now faces an impeachment trial in the Senate. However, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided to withhold the articles of impeachment from the upper chamber until lawmakers determine the guidelines for the trial.
The Hill-HarrisX poll was conducted among 1,004 registered voters across the country. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
—Tess Bonn
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