Following the recent formal impeachment of President Donald Trump by the U.S. House, the process is fast moving towards an impeachment trial that’s been teed up in the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has delayed transmitting the case to the Senate until she can examine the trial parameters that the body comes up with in light of Republican pledges against basic fairness, and while that process continues to unfold, new polling has come out showing a dramatic surge in support for removing Trump from office. In the Wednesday edition of the Microsoft News daily tracking poll measuring support and opposition to removing Trump, the portion in favor of the president’s ouster hit 55 percent.
In the same poll, only 40 percent said that they opposed Trump’s removal. Overall, the shift from a week prior to the new numbers is striking — it went from 48 percent favoring removal and 47 percent opposing it to the present numbers. The now 40 percent of respondents opposing removal tracks roughly with the portion of the population at large who approve of Trump in general and demonstrates just how out on a limb that the president and his supporters really are. Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have insisted that the American people are on their side or whatever — but that’s just not true. Other recent polls also show large portions of Americans in favor of removal.
Economist David Rothschild noted:
‘MSN Poll matches all-time high for support of conviction 55%, and opposition plummets to all-time low: Many people moving from “opposition” to “don’t know”, big moment will be if they reach support for conviction.’
He added that “when you follow polling daily, you learn people rarely make big jumps from Opposition to Support, but slowly move through don’t know or third-party” — yet, jumps are happening anyway. He notes that the new “polling is a clear sign that Republican policy of complete obstruction is not selling well to voting public.”
When you follow polling daily, you learn people rarely make big jumps from Opposition to Support, but slowly move through don't know or third-party. This polling is a clear sign that Republican policy of complete obstruction is not selling well to voting public.
— David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) December 25, 2019
That doesn’t mean that Republicans are stopping their campaign to obstruct fairness in the impeachment proceedings. Democrats are demanding testimony from witnesses like White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, and other key players in the president’s plot to pressure Ukraine into investigating his domestic political opponents, but Republicans are insisting that those basic demands are wildly out of line. To be clear — it’s the president and his allies who have muddled the process through refusing to comply with the at this point longstanding but simple and straightforward demands for testimony.
This Thursday, the morning after Christmas, he whined on Twitter:
‘Despite all of the great success that our Country has had over the last 3 years, it makes it much more difficult to deal with foreign leaders (and others) when I am having to constantly defend myself against the Do Nothing Democrats & their bogus Impeachment Scam. Bad for USA!’
Despite all of the great success that our Country has had over the last 3 years, it makes it much more difficult to deal with foreign leaders (and others) when I am having to constantly defend myself against the Do Nothing Democrats & their bogus Impeachment Scam. Bad for USA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2019
Actually — he’s become a literal laughingstock all on his own, from the time at the United Nations that he claimed that he’s done more than almost any other U.S. president and got laughs in response to the occasion at NATO when a group of world leaders mocked his desperate, attention-seeking antagonism of the press.
