Politics

POLL: 52% Of Americans Support Convicting Donald Trump

JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Anders Hagstrom White House Correspondent
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A majority of Americans are in favor of the Senate voting to convict former President Donald Trump during his impeachment trials, according to a Monday poll from Gallup.

The poll represents a reversal of position compared to Trump’s first impeachment, where 51% of Americans opposed his conviction. Roughly 45% of Americans now oppose his conviction and 52% are in favor, according to the poll. Along party lines, the poll found that 89% of Democrats are in favor of conviction and 7% oppose it; 88% of Republicans oppose Trump’s conviction and 10% are in favor.


Trump’s second impeachment trial is set to begin Tuesday. Trump’s legal team has gone through a number of changes in the weeks leading up to the trial, having to announce entirely new counsel when his previous defense team abruptly quit. (RELATED: Mitch McConnell Proposes Delaying Impeachment To Give Trump Team Time)

Trump’s new team, David Schoen and former Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, district attorney Bruce Castor, plan to argue both that it is unconstitutional to impeach a president once he is out of office and that Trump’s speech to supporters in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 was protected by the First Amendment.

The lone article of impeachment from the House of Representatives charges Trump with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in allegedly causing a mob of his supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6. Democrats and many Republicans have argued that Trump’s speech to those supporters prior to the riot incited the mob to violence.

“His conduct endangered the life of every single Member of Congress, jeopardized the peaceful transition of power and line of succession, and compromised our national security,” the Democratic managers of the impeachment case wrote in a Tuesday legal brief. “This is precisely the sort of constitutional offense that warrants disqualification from federal office.”

If convicted in the Senate trial, Trump would be barred from running for federal office for life. A conviction is now unlikely thanks to 45 Republicans voting on Jan. 26 to not even hold the trial. Only five Republicans voted in favor of the trial. Democrats need 17 Republicans to side against the former president to secure the two-thirds majority necessary for conviction.