A new poll from Quinnipiac finds support to impeach President Trump has fallen to 29% from the 37% reported in last week’s Washington Post-ABC news poll.
But American voters say 66 – 29 percent that Congress should not begin impeachment of President Trump. Democrats support impeachment 56 – 38 percent. Opposition to impeachment is 95 – 4 percent among Republicans and 70 – 27 percent among independent voters.
Investigating Trump distracts Congress from other national issues, 53 percent of voters say, while 43 percent say Congress can investigate Trump and work on other national issues at the same time.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller conducted a fair investigation, voters say 72 – 18 percent, including 65 – 25 percent among Republicans.
Now here is where it gets interesting: 57% of American voters say that President Trump committed crimes before he became president. He was cleared of “collusion” or conspiracy in a $30+ million investigation utilizing 19 federal prosecutors and 40 FBI agents so what informs the belief that Trump committed pre-presidential crimes? Does this refer to the Russia investigation or does it refer to other crimes he committed in his real estate career?
I suppose the good news is that this 57% figure is down from the 64% that thought the same before the Mueller report was released.
This compares to results of a March 5 survey by the independent Quinnipiac University National Poll, before release of the Mueller Report, in which voters said 64 – 24 percent that President Trump committed crimes before he was elected.
More than half (51%) say that the Mueller report does not clear Trump of wrong doing and 54% say the president “attempted to derail or obstruct the investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 election.”
The poll also asked about confidence in the media and it is not surprising there are sharp partisan differences.
The news media is an important part of democracy, 66 percent of American voters say, while 23 percent say the media is the “enemy of the people.” Republicans say 49 – 36 percent that the news media is the enemy of the people. Every other listed party, gender, education, age and racial group says the media is an important part of democracy.
By 52 – 35 percent, voters trust the media more than Trump to tell the truth about important issues. Republicans trust Trump more than the media 82 – 9 percent. Trusting the media more are Democrats 92 – 2 percent and independent voters 54 – 29 percent.
We don’t know what people think of when they think of “the media.” I think the news media is important to a democracy but that doesn’t mean I think the legacy media does a good job informing the public of the news.
Finally, the poll asked voters if they think it is a good idea to put a citizenship question on the census and 48% think it is while 33 percent say it is not.
Image from Getty Images.