A new poll published Sunday reveals more than half of Americans support House Democrats’ effort to begin a formal impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump over his communications with Ukraine’s government.
The CBS News survey, which was conducted by YouGov, concluded that 55 percent of voters back an impeachment probe. Of these, 35 percent were found to strongly approve of such an inquiry, while 20 percent said they are somewhat in favor of this move. In total, 45 percent of those surveyed said they opposed Democratic lawmakers’ push to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump.
Last week, acting National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire testified before a congressional committee about a whistleblower’s complaint regarding Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and its significance. Maguire called Trump’s actions, which involved the president pressuring Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden for alleged corruption, “totally unprecedented.” The claims of corruption against Biden — the Democratic frontrunner in the 2020 presidential election — and his son remain unverified.
Democratic House leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-California) have been fervently advocating to launch an impeachment inquiry into Trump for using his office to obtain dirt on his political opponent. Trump also famously tried to enlist his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr to investigate Biden and extorted Ukraine’s president by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in planned military aid to the country.
The new YouGov poll also found a significant divide on support for an impeachment inquiry depending on political party affiliation. According to the survey, 87 percent of Democratic respondents said they back an impeachment probe, while only 23 percent of Republicans said the same. Forty-nine percent of Independent respondents also said they are in favor of an impeachment investigation.
The survey also found 41 percent of voters said Trump’s discussions and actions with Ukraine were illicit. However, 28 percent of respondents, including 57% of Republicans, stated they believe Trump’s behavior in this case was proper.
The CBS News-YouGov poll was held from Sept. 26 to 27 among 2,059 U.S. residents. The margin of error is 2.3 percent.
