Impeachment polling
Fox News poll finds independents want the Senate to convict and remove Trump by 19-point margin
President Trump's defense team will wage its second day of arguments in his Senate impeachment trial on Monday, explaining to the Republican-controlled chamber why it should acquit Trump on both impeachment charges and not call witnesses later this week. A Fox News poll released Sunday found that voters think the Senate already has enough evidence to render its verdict — 48 percent to 44 percent who say senators should subpoena witnesses. But by a margin of 6 percentage points, they think the evidence points to guilt and removal from office.
Two polls last week found that 51 percent of Americans want the Senate to convict and oust Trump, whose approval rating in the Fox News poll is 45 percent, 54 percent disapproval. By comparison, Fox News notes, "around the time former President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial began in January 1999, some 38 percent said the Senate should remove him from office, and 65 percent approved of the job he was doing as president."
Luckily for Trump, the party with a Senate majority is taking his side — 84 percent of Republicans told the Fox News pollsters that Trump shouldn't be convicted and removed, versus 81 percent of Democrats who said he should be; independents wanted Trump removed by a 19-point margin, 53 percent to 34 percent.
The poll was conducted Jan. 19-22 by Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Co. (R), surveying 1,005 randomly selected registered votes over the phone. The poll's overall margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.