Donald Trump’s Disapproval Rating Rises, 49% Support Impeachment
A new poll shows that President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating has shot up to 60 percent, and 49 percent also support impeachment, People Magazine reports. The poll was conducted by ABC and the Washington Post, and it was released on Friday. The new numbers are up a relatively significant amount from the previous poll conducted by the same two news organizations. Previously, 56 percent disapproved and 40 percent were in approval of his time in office.
When the results show only the women who were polled, 57 percent support beginning impeachment proceedings against President Trump, which is unsurprising as he has consistently been less popular with women.
Respondents were polled from August 26 through August 29. The respondents were answering the questions just over a week after Paul Manafort was convicted of eight felony counts of bank and tax fraud. Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager and closely associated with the President, so his conviction is a definite blow to Trump’s credibility. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, also pleaded guilty to 8 felony counts including tax fraud, false statements to a bank, and campaign finance violations.
These two close Trump associates have been in the news consistently and it is certainly possible they may have helped turn the tide of public support toward impeachment.
President Trump, of course, disagrees that he should be impeached. In an interview last week on Fox & Friends, Trump boasted about his own performance and said he gives himself an A+.
“I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who’s done a great job,” he said.”If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash,” he continued. “I think everybody would be very poor because without this thinking you would see — you would see numbers that you wouldn’t believe in reverse.”
The last president to undergo impeachment proceedings was Bill Clinton, who was impeached in 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. In the United States, impeachable offenses are treason, bribery, and other “high crimes or misdemeanors.” The last option is fairly open to interpretation – for example, in 1998, the offenses Bill Clinton was charged with would have fallen into this category.
Impeachment proceedings do not mean an immediate removal from office. Rather, any impeached official is given a trial by the Senate, who then vote on whether or not to remove the official from office. There must be a two-thirds majority vote of all Senators present in order for an official to be removed.
