In two new polls asking Americans for their views about the impeachment proceedings that the Democrat-led House started against outgoing President Donald Trump in the wake of his incitement of violence at the U.S. Capitol, majorities of respondents said that they support impeachment. In a CBS survey, 55 percent of respondents said that they support impeachment, while in a Morning Consult poll, 53 percent of respondents said the same. In the CBS survey, a predictable partisan breakdown marked responses to the impeachment question — although a full 15 percent of Republican respondents said that they supported impeachment. A full 88 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of independents said the same.
CBS poll: 55% support impeaching Trump
Morning Consult poll: 53% support impeaching Trump
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 13, 2021
In the CBS survey, among respondents who said that they supported impeachment, almost all said that they felt like the step would “send a signal that [Trump’s] behavior was wrong.” Among other comments about the ramifications of impeachment, 82 percent of the process’s supporters said that the step would “show that democracy will defend itself,” CBS reports. A number of prominent Republicans, like Rep. Liz Cheney (Wy.), decided to support impeachment, although a majority of House Republicans remained in opposition.
Shortly before the violence at the U.S. Capitol last week, Trump spoke at an outdoor event in D.C., where he admonished his supporters to “fight like hell” against the imaginary election fraud that he claimed swung the election to Biden. Shortly after these remarks — and after, on a similar note, prominent Trump defender Rudy Giuliani called for “trial by combat” in remarks to the same crowd — a mob of the president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building, fatally injuring a Capitol Police officer while leaving other officers with serious injuries. When the mob stormed the building, Congress was inside and working through the motions of certifying the electoral college outcome, meaning Biden’s victory. Pretending like the mob was somehow disconnected from the president’s rhetoric is ridiculous.
Recently, Trump publicly commented about this second round of impeachment proceedings, insisting that the impeachment push is “causing tremendous danger to our country and… causing tremendous anger” — as if he was trying to preemptively excuse any potential future violent acts that his supporters may commit. After the Capitol violence last week, Trump publicly justified what took place, writing via his since-removed Twitter account that “these are the things and events that happen” when an election victory is stolen — which, of course, did not take place, no matter Trump’s claims otherwise.
