The campaign team for President Donald Trump (as well as the president himself) has consistently argued that the impeachment vote made by the House of Representatives last week will help him politically.
“This lit up our base, lit up the people that are supporters of the president,” campaign chairman Brad Parscale recently said, per the Washington Post. “They’re frustrated, they’re upset, and that motivates voters. They have ignited a flame underneath them.”
Trump’s base is one thing — but the base alone cannot win him the election. And according to recent polls, Americans seem to be happier than not that Trump was impeached.
A Politico/Morning Consult poll released on Friday found that a majority of the American electorate, 52 percent, approved of the vote taken last week to impeach Trump. Only 43 percent said they disapproved of the vote.
What’s more, a majority (51 percent) also said they want to see the Senate vote to remove Trump from office as well, once an impeachment trial happens within that body of Congress. Forty-two percent said they didn’t want to see that happen.
The new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll also shows an identical 52 percent would approve of the Senate voting to remove Trump from office https://t.co/a10Jr7q7kl
— POLITICO (@politico) December 21, 2019
That’s not likely to happen, however, given that an indictment of the president requires two-thirds vote of the Senate. Even if every Democratic senator voted in favor of indicting Trump, it would require at least 20 members of Trump’s own Republican Party within the Senate to successfully remove him.
Respondents in the Politico/Morning Consult poll were also asked how likely they’d vote to re-elect a person based on if they themselves voted for impeachment last week. Only 34 percent of Americans said they’d be less likely to vote for their incumbent lawmaker based on that decision, while 44 percent said they’d be more likely to do so.
That’s a move in a more positive position supporting lawmakers who backed impeachment versus last week, when 39 percent said they’d be more likely to vote to re-elect a candidate that backed impeachment.