A Gallup poll shows the Republican Party firmly behind President Donald Trump as he faces impeachment, with 93 percent opposed to a Senate impeachment conviction and removal, and 51 percent of Americans overall agree.
Gallup led its reporting on its poll with Trump’s overall approval rating of 44 percent, a rating that has held steady in recent months.
But the poll also reveals broader support for the president, reported later in the article:
Forty-six percent of Americans say they would like their senators to vote to convict Trump and remove him from office, while 51 percent want their senators to vote against conviction so Trump will remain as president.
Like his approval rating, Trump’s impeachment figures are also sharply divided along partisan lines. Ninety-three percent of Republicans are opposed to convicting Trump and 84 percent of Democrats favor doing so. Independents are evenly divided, with 49 percent in favor and 46 percent opposed.
The poll also showed that 88 percent of Republicans, 37 percent of independents and 10 percent of Democrats approve of the job Trump is doing.
Gallup compared Trump’s impeachment with that of former President Bill Clinton, although the poll does not reflect the differences in the articles of impeachment for the two presidents.
“The president’s own party is about as opposed to impeachment for Trump as the Democratic Party was for Clinton; but the opposition party and political independents are more strongly aligned against Trump than they were against Clinton,” Gallup reported.
- Seven percent of Republicans today, versus 8% of Democrats in 1999, wanted the Senate to remove a president of their own party.
- 65 percent of Republicans wanted Clinton removed, but 84 percent of Democrats want to see Trump ousted today.
- Thirty-two percent of independents wanted Clinton removed from office, compared with 49 percent wanting the same for Trump.
Gallup notes that both Clinton and Trump’s impeachment trials took place during a strong economy, but “Trump is operating in a much more partisan environment than Clinton was” and the polarization in the country is holding Trump’s job approval ratings down.
The Gallup poll was conducted in telephone interviews from January 2 to January 15, 2020, with a random sample of 1,014 adults 18 years or older and all living in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
The margin of error is plus or minus four percent with a 95 percent confidence level.
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