Support for impeaching President Donald Trump has fallen slightly, but still has substantial support, a recently released Fox News poll states.
According to the survey, 45 percent of July respondents support President Trump’s removal, a drop from 50 percent in June. This month, 47 percent expressed support for impeachment and five percent said President Trump should be impeached, but remain in office. Fox News states polling interviews were conducted between July 21-23, 2019. A random national sample of 1,004 registered voters participated. The poll has a three percent margin of error.
The poll comes as House Democrats have begun their so-called “impeachment investigation” by asking a judge to allow access to secret grand jury material underlying former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on now-debunked collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
The House Judiciary Committee is also expected to go to court next week to try to enforce a subpoena against former White House counsel Donald McGahn, a key Mueller witness. That suit is expected to challenge the White House’s claim that former White House employees have “absolute immunity” from testifying before Congress.
“This is an impeachment investigation,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said of the panel’s new efforts. “We are suggesting here is the first time we are telegraphing to the court that one remedy we have is impeachment.”
The court battles are beginning as the House leaves for a six-week recess and Democrats are debating whether to impeach the president. More than 90 House Democrats have said they favor starting the impeachment process, yet House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has said she wants to build the strongest case possible before making that decision.
Addressing the media on Friday Pelosi dismissed the notion that she is attempting to slow-walk impeachment proceedings.
“No, I’m not trying to run out the clock,” said the Speaker.“We will proceed when we have what we need to proceed — not one day sooner.”
“Everybody has the liberty and the luxury to espouse their own position and to criticize me for trying to go down the path in the most determined, positive way,” the California Democrat added. “Again, their advocacy for impeachment only gives me leverage.”
Though over 90 House Democrats now publically say they support ousting the president, some political observers believe Mueller’s congressional testimony likely took the windout of such efforts.
“I think the candidates on the stump are being politically realistic; the people back in Washington aren’t. Nancy Pelosi, who is a wintry eyed realist, is having none of it: she thinks impeachment is a fools’ errand and I have to say I agree with her,” said William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Brown University political science professor Wendy Schiller said: Mueller’s lackluster testimony likely gave Speaker Pelosi the ammunition to withstand calls for impeachment inquiries, or hearings, from the left flank of her party. She has always maintained it is a losing political proposition even if the House voted to impeach Trump because the Senate will not vote to convict Trump and remove him from office.
Earlier this month, the House voted 332-95 to table a resolution calling for impeachment introduced by Rep. Al Green. (D-TX).
Story cited here.
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