New Polls Finds 70% of Americans Think Trump Was Wrong to Seek Ukraine Biden Inquiry
WASHINGTON – Seventy percent of Americans think President Donald Trump’s request that Ukraine open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, his political rival, was wrong, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.
Perhaps worse for the president, 58% of Americans say they are following the House impeachment inquiry closely, and the majority of those tuning in say they now believe Trump should be impeached and removed from office.
The breakdown stands like this: of the total 58% who said they were following the hearings, 21% said they were following them very closely, while 37% said they were following them somewhat closely.
Of those who said they were following the hearings very closely, 67% believe Trump’s July 25 comments to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky crossed the line from inappropriate conduct to possible criminal behavior and that he should be impeached and removed from office.
Of those who said they are following the hearings “somewhat closely,” 60% were of the same opinion.
House Democrats are investigating whether the administration withheld nearly $400 million in aid and promised a White House summit between the two leaders in exchange for an investigation into the president’s political rival, Biden, and his son, for his place on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
When the poll results were looked at more broadly, including people who said they were not following the impeachment hearings, 51 percent still said “President Trump’s actions were wrong and he should be impeached by the House and removed from office by the Senate.”
Nineteen percent of Americans said President Trump’s actions were wrong but he should not be removed from office and 25% said Trump did nothing wrong.
The poll conducted by Ipsos in partnership with ABC News, using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, asked Americans how closely they were following the first week of public impeachment hearings in the House, their assessments of Trump’s actions and whether those actions warranted impeachment and removal from office.
The survey also asked Americans when they decided on the matter.
A small plurality (32%) of Americans said their positions on impeaching President Trump were established before the Ukraine scandal erupted into public consciousness.
However, most Americans (67%) said they have decided on their position in the wake of the first reporting on Ukraine in September with one in five (21%) saying their decision has come after last week’s public hearings.
The ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs‘ KnowledgePanel November 16-17, 2019, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 506 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4.8 points.
