Support for witnesses in Senate trial at 75 percent: poll

A large majority of voters say the Senate should allow witnesses to testify during President Trump’s impeachment trial, according to a poll from Quinnipiac University.

Of those surveyed, 75 percent said they think that witnesses should be allowed to testify in the trial. Along party lines, 49 percent of respondents who identified as Republicans said that they thought there should be witness testimony while 95 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of independents said the same.

The growing call for witnesses from Democrats has hit a fever pitch following a New York Times report on former national security adviser John Bolton’s book manuscript in which he says the president told him not to release military aid to Ukraine unless Kyiv investigated his political rivals.

After the bombshell report, some GOP senators seemed to waver on whether to call witnesses and has seemed to thwart Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) plan to keep the impeachment trial short.

The impeachment proceedings against Trump are now two weeks in, and some GOP senators such as Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah) and Susan Collins (Maine) seem to be warming to the idea of having Bolton testify.

“There may be heated debate among lawmakers about whether witnesses should testify at the impeachment trial of President Trump, but it’s a different story outside the Beltway,” Quinnipiac University Poll analyst Mary Snow said. “Three-quarters of American voters say witnesses should be allowed to testify, and that includes nearly half of Republican voters.”

Despite the overwhelming call for witness testimony, those surveyed remained narrowly divided on the question of whether the Senate should remove Trump from office, with 48 percent saying they should not, and 47 percent say they should.

This was unsurprisingly split heavily along party lines, with 2 percent of Republicans saying the president should be removed and 92 percent of Democrats saying the same. Of those who identified as independents, 44 percent said they thought the president should be removed from office.

Of those surveyed who said they have an opinion on if Trump should be removed, 89 percent said they are firm in their choice — while 10 percent said they could possibly be swayed to change their mind, according to the poll.