Slim majority supports conviction in Trump impeachment trial: Gallup

A narrow majority of Americans said in a new poll that they want their senators to convict former President Trump in his upcoming second impeachment trial. 

Fifty-two percent of respondents in the Gallup poll released on Monday said they favor their senators voting for conviction, and 45 percent do not. 

Gallup noted that 46 percent of those surveyed in a similar poll taken just before Trump’s first impeachment trial favored his conviction. 

The new Gallup poll, like the first, fell heavily along partisan lines, with 89 percent of Democrats in favor of conviction and 7 percent opposing. 

At the same time, 88 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they oppose the former president’s conviction by the Senate, and 10 percent favor it. 

Trump was impeached by the House last month on one article of “inciting insurrection” against the government after a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as a joint session of Congress met to finalize President Biden’s Electoral College victory. 

In the months that followed the November election, Trump and his allies pushed unproven claims of voter fraud and encouraged his voters to voice opposition to Biden’s win. 

The effort culminated with a speech by the former president on Jan. 6, when he told  thousands of his supporters to march on the Capitol and show “strength” as they contested the election’s result. The siege resulted in five deaths.

Ten members of Trump’s own party voted to impeach him in the House a week later. A motion from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to toss out Trump’s impeachment on constitutional basis was rejected by Democrats, and five Senate GOP members joined them in opposing Paul’s measure. 

Trump’s Senate trial is slated to begin this week. 

The latest Gallup poll of 906 adults was conducted Jan. 21-Feb. 2. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.