Poll: Only 33% Believe Partisan Impeachment Probe Should Be Congress’s Top Priority

Only one-third of adults in the United States, or 33 percent, believe the partisan impeachment inquiry should be a top priority for Congress, a recent poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reveals.

It appears, however, that the impeachment probe is the top item on the House Democrats’ legislative agenda.

The AP-NORC poll, which was released Friday, reveals:

More Americans say the impeachment inquiry should be a top (33%) or important priority (19%) for Congress, than say it should be a low priority (16%) or not done at all (31%). Democrats are more likely than independents and Republicans to say it should be a top priority. Republicans are more likely to say it should not be done at all compared to independents and Democrats.

House Democrats pursuing the impeachment probe are supposed to be trying to find out if Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate corruption allegations against Joe Biden and his son Hunter in exchange for aid during a July 25 phone call. Some developments suggest, however, that the Democrats are carrying out a fishing expedition that will likely expand the probe far beyond Ukraine.

Echoing other polls, the AP-NORC survey shows a majority (53 percent) of adults believe the House Democrats’  impeachment inquiry is politically motivated.

The pollsters note:

Fifty-three percent of Americans say the House is motivated more by politics to challenge Trump’s presidency compared to 43% who say it is acting in good faith on its responsibility to investigate the executive branch. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to think the House is acting in compliance with its oversight responsibilities (71% vs. 12%). Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say there are political motivations behind the inquiry (86% vs. 27%).

The poll also notes that the impeachment inquiry has not impacted Trump’s overall approval.

“Forty-two percent of Americans approve of his job as president and 56% disapprove, not significantly different from September, when 40% approved and 56% disapproved,” the pollsters note. “When it comes to Congress, 27% of Americans approve of its job performance compared to 71% who disapprove.”

“The nationwide poll was conducted October 24-28, 2019, using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago,” the pollsters add. “Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,075 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points,” the AP-NORC pollsters note.”