In the last month, support for the Democrats’ impeachment of President Donald Trump has dropped, especially among independents, according to a new poll. Independents flipped from supporting impeachment in October to opposing it in November.
In October, 48 percent of self-described independents in an Emerson poll said they supported impeachment, while only 39 percent said they opposed it. In the latest Emerson poll released Thursday, only 34 percent of independents said they support impeachment, while 49 percent said they oppose it.
In October, 48 percent of likely voters said they supported impeachment, while 44 percent said they opposed it. In the latest poll, only 43 percent said they support impeaching Trump, while 45 percent said they oppose it.
Trump’s approval rating also increased. In October, only 43 percent of voters approved of his job as president. In the latest poll, 48 percent said they approve while 47 percent said they disapprove.
Most voters in the poll (69 percent) said they have been watching the impeachment hearings. Of those voters, 26 percent said they get their information from Fox News, while 24 percent said they watch one of the three network stations (ABC, CBS, NBC). Sixteen percent said they watch CNN, 15 percent said they watch MSNBC, and 19 percent said they get their information elsewhere.
In head-to-head match-ups, voters just barely preferred President Donald Trump to potential Democratic challengers Joe Biden (50.7 percent to 49.3 percent), Elizabeth Warren (50.2 percent to 49.8 percent), and Pete Buttigieg (52.2 percent to 47.8 percent). Bernie Sanders barely led Trump, 50.5 percent to the president’s 49.5 percent.
As PJ Media’s Stephen Kruiser noted yesterday, Trump’s approval also increased in a Gallup poll, and the president’s polling has ticked up in Wisconsin against leading Democratic candidates.
Recent polls also suggest that voters in key swing states oppose impeaching and removing Trump.
According to a New York Times/Siena College poll, most voters in Arizona (52 percent to 45 percent), Florida (53 percent to 42 percent), Michigan (51 percent to 42 percent), North Carolina (53 percent to 43 percent), Pennsylvania (52 percent to 45 percent), and Wisconsin (51 percent to 45 percent) say they oppose Congress’s potential removal of Trump from office.
A Marquette University Law School poll found that 49 percent of Wisconsin voters oppose the impeachment inquiry, while 46 percent support it. Most voters (51 percent) opposed removing Trump from office, while 44 percent supported it. Independents proved less likely to support the inquiry and removal. Trump won Wisconsin by a mere 23,000 votes — out of roughly 3 million. Late-breaking undecided voters went his way on Election Day.
In New Hampshire, a state Hillary Clinton won by fewer than 3,000 votes — out of roughly 700,000 — impeachment is similarly unpopular. Most voters oppose removing Trump (51 percent to 42 percent), according to a CNN-University of New Hampshire poll.
Respondents also oppose impeachment and removal in Arizona, a state Trump won by 3.6 percent but which Democrats have targeted for pick-up. Fifty percent of Arizona residents oppose “impeaching Donald Trump,” while 44 percent support it, according to a recent Emerson College poll.
The Democrats’ decision to impeach Trump a year before the 2020 election has the potential to backfire on them, badly. When Attorney General Bill Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham release their investigations into the Obama administration’s efforts to spy on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, that may make the president an even more sympathetic figure. Spygate may turn out to be one of the greatest political scandals in American history, revealing just how far Democrats have gone to attack Trump — before and during his presidency.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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