Nearly Half of Americans Want to Start Trump Impeachment Now

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Last updated on September 26th, 2018 at 12:13 pm

A new Axios/Survey Monkey poll released Tuesday reveals 44 percent of respondents want Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump, including 49% of independent voters. Fully 79 percent of Democrats but just 8 percent of Republicans want an impeachment trial to begin in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“NEW POLL: Nearly half of Americans say they want Congress to start impeachment proceedings against Trump.”

The poll also found that nearly two thirds of American voters believe Michael Cohen when he says that the president ordered him, as his attorney and fixer, to make the illegal payments to women to keep them quiet about his affairs. Cohen admitted he made the “hush money” payments to both Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, but said that he only did so at the direction of his client and boss, Donald Trump.

Americans’ opinions on whether or not to begin impeachment of Trump depends completely on which party the respondent belongs to. Even though most members of the GOP do not want to start an impeachment trial in Congress, GOP members of Congress in more moderate congressional districts have recently said they are open to the idea once enough evidence is presented to justify such an action.

Within the Democratic Party there is a debate on the issue. Many Democrats believe that the party leaders should definitely press for impeachment now. Others, such as House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, believe the time is not right and all energy should be focused on bread-and-butter issues to get the most Democrats elected to Congress in November.

Even the political director of NBC News, Chuck Todd, weighed in on the topic earlier in the month, saying that he believes that based on Cohen’s charges against Trump, now is the right time for Republicans in the House to begin the impeachment process.

The poll was conducted following Cohen’s guilty pleas last week to eight felony charges, including charges of bank fraud, tax fraud and campaign finance law violations. In at least two of the crimes he pleaded guilty to he also implicated the president.

Different groups of voters, such as millennials, suburban white women and rural voters, all believe that Trump told Cohen to arrange the payments to Daniels and McDougal.

The poll seems to say that while most Americans believe Trump was behind the payments to the women, his actions as described so far do not necessarily mean he should be impeached — yet. But the percentage who do believe impeachment should start now is 44 percent which is very close to half of the respondents to the poll. Once again, this poll shows that there is a big difference of opinion on an important topic that the country needs to face — and the two sides to the issue are very evenly divided.

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Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.