A national survey conducted by ABC News/Washington Post reveals that support for impeaching President Trump has fallen to an all-time low following the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 US election, which found that President Trump and his campaign did not coordinate with the Kremlin to affect the outcome of the election.
According to the new poll released on Friday, support for impeachment dropped to 37%, down from 40% in January. For context, support to impeach Trump hit a high of 49% in August.
While the overall figure dropped – Democrat support of impeachment actually rose to 62%, but sharply to 36% among Independent voters, and 10% among Republicans.
The public overall appears cautiously supportive of the Mueller report, which Trump has characterized as “a total hit job.” Fifty-one percent in this survey, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, call the report fair and even-handed – just a bare majority, albeit far more than the 21 percent who say it’s unfair. Still, that leaves many, 28 percent, who are withholding judgment on whether Mueller’s report is fair or not.
While criticizing the report, Trump has claimed “complete and total exoneration” in its findings. Again the public’s response differs: Thirty-one percent say the report cleared Trump of all wrongdoing, almost entirely an ingathering of his political supporters. Many more, 53 percent, say the report did not exonerate Trump. An additional 16 percent have no opinion. –ABC News
Going into 2020, nearly half of those polled – 46% – say the Mueller report won’t be a factor in their vote for president. Of the remaining respondents, 36% say it makes them more likely to oppose Trump’s re-election vs. 14% who say it won’t. That said, ABC News admits that “demographically many in this group look unlikely to support him anyway.”
As far as election interference goes, 42% say Russian meddling undermined the legitimacy of the 2016 election, while 49% say it didn’t. 53% say interference by Russia and other countries could threaten the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
As far as Trump’s approval goes – 39% approve of the job Trump is doing, vs a 54% disapproval rate – down from its peak disapproval of 60% last August.
Trump’s approval rating is sharply partisan, peaking at 78 percent among Republicans, 83 percent among highly conservative Americans and 77 percent among evangelical white Protestants, a core Republican group. Those compare with 6 percent among Democrats and 9 percent among liberals. But it’s the political middle that turns the tide against Trump: Among independents, 40 percent approve of his job performance; among moderates, 30 percent. –ABC News
ABC News notes that 40% approval from independents is a numerical high for Trump within that group – up 8% since January.
Looking at Trump’s approval by race and gender, Trump’s approval rating among men is at 47% vs 32% women, while whites vs. nonwhites approve of Trump 51% and 20% respectively.
Methodology via ABC News.
This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone April 22-25, 2019, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,001 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 29-26-36 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents.
The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling and data collection by Abt Associates of Rockville, Md. See details on the survey’s methodology here.
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