70 Percent of Americans Think Trump Was Wrong in Asking Zelensky to Investigate Hunter Biden
Seven in 10 Americans think President Donald Trump was “wrong” to ask a foreign leader to investigate potential corruption involving the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, who is a 2020 Democratic hopeful. The poll, conducted by ABC News-Ipsos and released Monday, also found that a narrow majority of respondents believe he should be removed from office.
Trump’s July request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is at the center of the House Impeachment Inquiry, which resumed public testimony today. House Democrats allege that Trump used the power of his office to make military aid to Ukraine contingent upon investigating the Bidens. Trump maintains the federal aid was never withheld and his only motivation in requesting an investigation into Hunter Biden’s appointment to the board of directors of a Ukrainian energy company was to root out corruption.
The survey, conducted after the first round of public testimony, asked respondents “When it comes to the recent impeachment hearings, which of the following statements comes closest to your point of view?”
Fifty one percent said Trump was both wrong and deserved to be impeached and removed from office, while 13 percent said what the president did was wrong but not impeachable, and another 6 percent thought his actions were wrong, and that he should be impeached by the House but not convicted in the Senate. Combined, the three answers resulted in 70 percent believing “Trump’s actions were wrong.”
One fourth of those polled (25 percent) stated the president’s actions were not wrong.
Less than a fourth of Americans (21 percent) said they were closely following the hearing and of those, 60 percent said they believe Trump should be impeached and convicted, according to ABC News. The remaining respondents said they were following the testimony “somewhat closely” (37 percent), while 42 percent said they were “not so closely” or “not closely at all” following the testimony.
In its poll, Ipsos, followed up the initial point of view question by asking respondents when they made up their mind, with 32 percent saying they decided before the Ukraine issue came to light, 27 percent saying after the news about Trump and Ukraine was first reported in September, but before the hearings this past week, and 21 percent said after the first round of hearings. Nineteen percent said they decided when the news about Trump and Ukraine was first reported in September.
When examining the situation along party lines, 85 percent of Democrats said Trump should be impeached and convicted, and 65 percent of Republicans believe the president hasn’t done anything to warrant impeachment.
This poll was conducted Nov. 16 and 17, 2019 and used a random national sample of 506 adults. The margin of error is 4.8 points.
Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Joe Raedle/Staff
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