New CNN Poll: Support For Impeachment And Removal Hits 50% — While Trump Approval Ticks Up (WHAT?)

Hotair ^ | 10/22/2019 | Ed Morrissey

[SeekAndFind]

How can that be? Those two trends in CNN polling would appear to be at least somewhat contradictory, but that neglects the impact of the magic elixir of American politics — partisanship. For the first time in CNN’s series on impeachment, support for Donald Trump’s removal from office has hit 50%, at the same time his approval rating has jumped to its highest level since June:

Half of Americans say President Donald Trump should be impeached and removed from office, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, a new high in CNN polling on the topic and the first time that support for impeachment and removal has significantly outpaced opposition.

As support for impeachment has inched upward, however, Trump’s approval ratings overall and for handling major issues have not taken a hit. Overall, 41% approve of his handling of the presidency and 57% disapprove, similar to his ratings in early September and August polls conducted before the House of Representatives formally launched an impeachment inquiry in late September.

Confused? It gets better … or worse, depending on your sense of humor:

The share who say Trump used his office improperly to gain political advantage against a potential 2020 opponent in his interactions with the President of Ukraine stands at 49%, about the same as in the September CNN poll. At the same time, more now say Trump did not use the presidency improperly (43%, up from 39%), as the share who are undecided on the question dipped. That shift was largely driven by a 16-point increase in the share of Republicans who say Trump didn’t improperly use the presidency (from 71% to 87%).

That partisanship would explain some of the hardening on Trump support. As Republicans dig in for a long impeachment fight, they will need to argue both that impeachment is illegitimate and that Trump is doing a good job as president. A peek through the issue ratings shows that to be a hit-or-miss affair, though. Trump is back up to 52% approval on the economy, his best showing since May, even though there hasn’t been any sharp economic catalyst for that improvement. The same goes for handling of foreign trade (43%, best in a year), but not at all for foreign affairs, likely due to Ukraine-Gate’s revelations.

Partisanship explains a lot of the rise in support for removal, too. CNN has been polling on the impeach-and-remove question all year, and the increase here is significant. It started at 36% in March, more of a fringe impulse, but has gone up thirteen points in six months. That might be in large part because support among Democrats has gone up from 68% in that poll to 87% in this one, a jump of 19 points in this demo. Independents now support it 50/42 as well, but that might also be explained by Democratic-leaning indies coming home to that position (87/8, up from 66/29 in March).

Still, that partisan hardening of the trench lines has an impact that goes beyond those demos. The only demos that don’t support it, besides the partisan demos, are 35-49 year olds (43/50) and white non-college grads (35/58). It may not be a dominant impulse, but it’s not fringe any more either. The corrosive partisanship around this question has not gone unnoticed, either; neither political party gets off the hook for their handling of the issue. Voters widely disapprove of how Republicans in Congress have dealt with the impeachment inquiry (30/57), but Americans aren’t too happy with Democrats either (43/49). Among independents, disgust is a more bipartisan affair; they disapprove of Republican handling 31/56 and Democratic handling 37/51.

Given how these numbers have risen over the last six months, one has to wonder whether they have hit their natural ceiling. Democrats are now nearly all-in on impeachment and Republicans are all-in opposing it. Unless something significant breaks in this issue, such as a real smoking gun against Trump or a Muellermas-style collapse in the Democrats’ narrative, it’s tough to see this changing much. This won’t be nearly enough popular consensus to convince the Senate to take the historic step of removing a duly elected president from office, which leaves us pretty much in the same position as in 1998, in which impeachment becomes a censure, and everyone is left unhappy in the end.

[wiseprince]

Go look up the swing voters project.

[Bonemaker]

“....New CNN Poll...”

Amongst CNN employees.

[rktman]

Yup. Might as well resign now. NOT?

[poinq]

Your friends that always have the TV on in the background with MSNBC playing a news flash every 15 minutes to get them to look up, still believe in Russia. They say the Mueller report proves Russia and Trump. Maddow has convinced them. They say that Mueller proved that Russians hack America. And Trump talked to a Russian there for there was a connection. They make no sense. But you can’t talk to them. They believe Trump is a Russian asset. They believe that Trump is pulling out of Syria because Putin told him to. They are sure. They are nuts.

[nikos1121]

I thought Rasmussen and others see majority are against Impeachment.

[fireman15]

One of the primary reasons President Trump won the election is because the Democrats believed their own polls and didn’t cheat enough. It still is fun to watch the network talking heads on election night 2016 when they finally realized that President Trump was going to win despite their polling data. The their expressions, tears, and crushed dreams were priceless.

[lasereye]

Some polls are accurate but CNN can be safely ignored.

[treetopsandroofs]

From the never Trump FReaks here, it was it was “Only TED can save us from Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump will never be the Republican nominee.”

[C210N]

(WHAT?)

I support Trump *AND* I support impeachment.

Impeachment would be fantastic... as a witch hunt with no evidence, and just an agenda, will lead to R landslides next Fall.

[GOPJ]

Polls can be written to create whatever answers the pollsters want...

[Mopp4]

Half of Americans say President Donald Trump should be impeached and removed from office, according to a new CNN poll.....

They should be stating that only half of the people in that poll say this. Polls are usually what - 900-1000 people. That's a pretty far cry from the impression they're trying to give of "half of Americans".

[alloysteel]

People just have to understand how CNN “polls” work. They are NOT a measure of the attitudes and opinions of a cross-section of the public, they are carefully chosen instruments to generate “buzz” for one outcome in preference to all others. In the trade, this is known as a “push-poll”, and as a sample of how people are thinking, virtually worthless. Its real value is in shaping and transforming opinion to conform to a preferred outcome. “No” is “Maybe”, and “HELL NO” is “No opinion”.

[aligncare]

Impeached for what you ask?

Well, obviously impeached for his hair and that he wears too long ties and for making a long distance phone call. ‘Cause they got nothing else on our President.

I’m not worried, though. Democrats and a few feckless sitting republicans will pay dearly in the coming election.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

The country is very polarized.

[WKUHilltopper]

CNN=lying, subversive traitors.

[100American]

Trolls love polls and that is why they post them and then run off and laugh while others respond and they do not

[Billthedrill]

I see Zucker going desk to desk, foaming at the mouth, screaming, insisting that Orange Man Must Go. In fact, the current phony poll is intended to sway not the public, but Pelosi and the Dems, who are fairly clear that impeachment will require more public support than they’re seeing at the moment. Fine, says CNN, we’ll just fake that for you.

[babble-on]

Trump has only dropped 5 points in approval rating from Rasmussen.

[Jim Noble]

Go ahead. Go ahead and skin that smoke wagon, and see what happens.

[gibsonguy]

Well the Headline says Impeached and Removed. No I don’t trust the Poll but I get more angry every day. It’s us and the President, everyone else is a pack of ruling class traitors.