Poll: Majority of Americans don't want Trump to be impeached and removed from office

WASHINGTON -- A majority of Americans oppose impeaching President Donald Trump, according to a new poll by Monmouth University released Thursday.

The data point -- with 59% of those surveyed responding that Trump should not be impeached and compelled to leave office -- comes as Trump’s approval rating remains at 40% in the same poll.

In the poll, there is a clear partisan divide on whether the House Judiciary Committee should pursue an impeachment inquiry. While 72% of Democrats believe such an inquiry is a good idea, only 39% of independents and 8% of Republicans share that belief.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. confirmed the launch of an impeachment inquiry by his House panel earlier this month in an interview on CNN. 

Additionally, Nadler sent a letter Thursday asking four other Democratic House committee chairs currently leading investigations into Trump to share documents to aid his committee’s investigation into possible obstruction and other abuses, which could lead to potentially filing articles of impeachment against the president.

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Nadler wrote to Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. 

He asked for “documents and testimony, depositions, and/or interview transcripts that you believe may be relevant to the Judiciary Committee's ongoing impeachment investigation relating to President Trump.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., so far has resisted growing interest from House Democrats in opening a formal impeachment inquiry. Pelosi has preferred instead to continue the investigations various House committees have already launched into the president's finances and business dealings along with further inquiry into the evidence compiled during former special counsel Robert Mueller's nearly two-year investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“To protect our democracy and our Constitution, Democrats in the Congress continue to legislate, investigate and litigate," Pelosi wrote in a statement released earlier this month. “In America, no one is above the law. The President will be held accountable.”

Currently, no House Republican backs impeachment. Justin Amash was the only GOP member of Congress to come out in favor of impeaching Trump in light of the Mueller report's findings and conclusions.

In a July op-ed, Amash announced he was leaving the GOP and remains in the House as an independent. 

As of Thursday, according to the Washington Post, 132 House Democrats say they support at least opening an impeachment inquiry into whether the president committed “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The number of House Democrats backing such an inquiry has grown consistently since Mueller testified publicly before two House committees last month.

Only 20% of Americans think it is likely that the Senate would vote to remove Trump from office if the House were to pass articles of impeachment, according to the Monmouth poll. Nearly one-third of Americans believe that a formal impeachment process without removing Trump from the Oval Office would strengthen his re-election bid, the poll also found.

The Monmouth University poll surveyed 800 adults in the U.S. via telephone from August 16-20, 2019. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.