Donald Trump Impeachment Chances Higher Than His Approval Rating, New Poll Suggests
Donald Trump’s impeachment odds are higher than his approval rating, according to a new poll.
Trump’s approval rating have been dismal since his presidential tenure first kicked off, but the execution of his latest “zero tolerance policy,” which saw thousands of children being separated from their undocumented parents, seems to have tanked his approval rating further.
A SRSS poll conducted for CNN showed that 42 percent of Americans want Donald Trump impeached, making him just shy of the infamous 43 percent figure that Richard Nixon had achieved five months before the House moved for his impeachment because of his role in the Watergate scandal in the mid-1970s.
To put the numbers into context, about 29 percent of Americans wanted Bill Clinton impeached at the peak of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. None of the subsequent presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, came close to the figure reached by Trump.
As noted by CNN, the 42 percent impeachment support rating that Donald Trump is garnering far eclipses the “baseline of pro-impeachment sentiment for a modern president.”
Moreover, the same SRSS poll also showed that Donald Trump’s approval rating stands at 39 percent, effectively meaning that his impeachment has more support from Americans than the president himself.
Support for Donald Trump's impeachment is higher than his approval rating, poll indicates https://t.co/DQ3O6jjoI0 pic.twitter.com/LV7vjjyosI
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) June 22, 2018
The poll also questioned Americans on whether they thought it would be within the realm of the president’s power to pardon himself in the event of him being indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. It is a debate which has embroiled legal scholars over the last few months, with President Trump insisting that he has the power to pardon himself.
But Americans seem not to have taken well to this assertion, with a remarkable 70 percent of those surveyed disapproving of Donald Trump’s statement about pardoning himself. Only 21 percent people said that they would approve Trump pardoning himself in the event of him being found guilty by Mueller.
Meanwhile, although Donald Trump’s impeachment odds have reached an unprecedented high, it remains unlikely that it would be possible in the near future. Although some Democrats have stirred up efforts to bring impeachment proceedings against the president, it has largely been ignored. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has said that Donald Trump’s impeachment cannot be a “policy agenda” for the Democrats, with Republicans controlling both House and the Senate.
However, some Trump supporters, including Steve Bannon, have claimed that Democrats would move for his impeachment if they are able to score victories in the midterms later this year.
