November 26, 2019 | Reading Time: < 1 minute
Yes, public hearings moved the needle
Politico reports today that impeachment hearings didn’t do much to hurt the president’s standing among Republicans. While this is true, it’s not the whole truth, and reporters ought to know better. Support for impeachment is now at 50 percent, per Politico and Morning Consult. That’s three points higher than last week. Three points isn’t a…
Politico reports today that impeachment hearings didn’t do much to hurt the president’s standing among Republicans. While this is true, it’s not the whole truth, and reporters ought to know better.
Support for impeachment is now at 50 percent, per Politico and Morning Consult. That’s three points higher than last week. Three points isn’t a lot, but it’s still three points. When Americans are paying attention, as they were during televised hearings, they don’t like what they see. The needle moved.
Putting this in context reveals more information. Per CNN’s latest polling:
Clinton, 1998: 29% impeach 67% don’t impeach
Bush, 2006: 30% impeach 69% don’t impeach
Obama, 2014: 29% impeach 70% don’t impeach
Trump, 2019: 50% impeach 43% don’t impeach
None of this is to say Trump will be impeached. None of this is to say he’ll be removed. I don’t know. My point is to read the political press carefully and skeptically (thought not cynically). The president is in trouble. More importantly, so is his party. As I say in today’s edition, even Joe Biden is getting pissed.
Let me know what you think! —John Stoehr
John Stoehr is the editor of the Editorial Board. He writes the daily edition. Find him @johnastoehr.
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Three points is a BFD. That represents about 4 million voters, based on 2016 turnout.
As Jonathan Bernstein repeatedly notes, the key figure is not “favor impeachment and removal” but simply “approval.” If that stays (relatively) locked in place, Republicans will not abandon Trump.
Yeah that’s stuck at 41 percent.
It’s wild that half the country thinks, “remove the MF!”, while about 40% think (unshakably, it would seem), “that MF will deliver us to a heavenly paradise”. Still can’t quite process it.
Yet, to listen to the MSM, support for impeachment “fell” ’cause it didn’t skyrocket?” Thanks for highlighting these statistics.