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A new national poll indicates that only 8% of Republican voters support the impeachment of President Trump and his removal from office.
That stands in stark contrast to the 89% of Democrats and 45% of independents questioned in a NBC News poll released Thursday who support impeaching and ousting the president for encouraging last week’s storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters and far-right extremists who were protesting the certification by Congress of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over the president.
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The poll was conducted Jan. 10-13, mostly before and slightly after Wednesday’s 232-197 vote by the House of Representatives to impeach Trump for "incitement of insurrection." Ten Republicans voted to impeach the president – joining all 222 Democrats - with 197 House Republicans voting against impeachment, and four GOP lawmakers not voting.
The Senate, which is controlled by the GOP through the beginning of next week, won’t begin an impeachment trial until the day Biden’s inaugurated as president, which means the trial will not likely conclude until a couple of weeks after Trump leaves the White House.
President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The 8% of Republicans who support the impeachment and removal of Trump from office is identical to the 8% of Republicans who said the same thing about the president’s previous impeachment by House Democrats over the Ukraine controversy in a December 2019 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Roughly seven in 10 Americans questioned in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll say Trump bears at least some responsibility for the storming of the Capitol, and 56% back efforts by Democrats and a handful of GOP lawmakers in Congress to prevent Trump from ever holding elected office again.
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But only 42% of Republicans think Trump bears at least some responsibility for the attack, which left five people dead, including a Capitol Hill Police officer, and the building vandalized. And just 12% of Republicans questioned in the survey said Congress should remove Trump from office and disqualify him from running for president again.
In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, violent protesters storm the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Federal prosecutors say a retired Air Force officer who was part of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol was arrested Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021, in Texas. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
The president’s approval rating in the ABC News/Washington Post poll – which was released Friday and conducted Jan. 10-13 – dropped to 38%. But Among Republicans it remained a robust 79%, down from 88% in October, the last time ABC News and the Washington Post asked the question.
And six in 10 Republicans say they want the GOP to follow Trump. That’s down from 83% two years ago – when the question was last asked – but it’s still a strong majority of Republican voters.
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A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in the three days immediately following the Capitol insurrection and released earlier this week showed the president’s approval among voters nationwide dropping to 33%, down 11 points from last month. But it stands at 71% approval among Republicans. That’s a drop from 89% in last month’s Quinnipiac poll, but still healthy.
The survey also showed that six in 10 voters nationwide said Trump was undermining democracy. But nearly three-quarters of Republicans questioned in the poll said the president was protecting democracy.
Trump has refused to concede to Biden and has repeatedly and falsely claimed there was "massive voter fraud" in what he calls a "rigged" presidential election.
While 93% of Democrats and six in 10 independent voters said they don’t believe there was widespread voter fraud in November’s election, nearly three-quarters of Republicans believe there was widespread voter fraud.
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