Poll: Half say Trump should be impeached and removed; unchanged since before public hearings

Half of Americans in a new poll said they support impeaching and removing President Trump, a number that has not changed since House Democrats started conducting public impeachment hearings.

A CNN poll released Tuesday found that 50 percent of Americans surveyed said Trump should be impeached and removed from office, while 43 percent said they do not feel that way. The numbers were unchanged from a CNN poll in October, which was conducted ahead of last week’s public phase of the inquiry.

Trump’s approval rating has also barely changed since October, with his approval ticking up 1 point to 42 percent from 41 percent, and his disapproval falling 3 points from 57 percent to 54 percent, based on the poll. The changes in approval are within the 3.7 percentage point margin of error. 

Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed said they are following the proceedings very or somewhat closely, while just 23 percent said they are not following or not closely following along. 

There was a slight uptick in Americans who said Trump “used the presidency improperly” since the October poll, increasing to 53 percent from 49 percent. The number of Americans who said Trump did not slightly decreased to 42 percent from 43 percent. 

House Democrats, led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), conducted public hearings last week with eight witnesses discussing Trump’s alleged quid pro quo deal withholding foreign aid to Ukraine in return for an investigation into Trump’s political rivals.

Support within Congress is deeply divided along party lines, with no sitting Republicans coming out in favor of impeachment and many strongly defending Trump. 

The poll surveyed 1,007 adults nationwide between Nov. 21-24.