Public opinion is turning against Robert Mueller’s investigation and the Democrats’ threats to impeach President Donald Trump, according to a new poll.
The ABC/Washington Post poll found that a majority of Americans oppose impeachment, including a growing number of Democrats, and public confidence in Mueller’s probe is eroding.
The poll was taken prior to a widely criticized pre-dawn raid on Trump associate Roger Stone but after Mueller publicly contradicted a Buzzfeed report that accused Trump of suborning perjury from ex-lawyer Michael Cohen.
Public sours on Mueller
The poll found that the percentage of Americans who want to see Trump impeached dropped nine points since August from 49 to 40 points. A majority of Americans — 55 percent — oppose impeachment.
Shockingly, the poll even found that the number of Democrats who support impeachment dropped from 75 percent in August to 64 percent. A minority of independents, 42 percent, agreed.
A majority of Americans did support the Democrats using their new subpoena powers to investigate Trump’s tax returns and various alleged conflicts involving Trump and Russia, but only one-third of respondents think the Democrats will handle impeachment proceedings correctly. A plurality of 46 percent think they’ll go “too far” and botch it.
Surprisingly, more Americans are skeptical of Mueller’s investigation as well. 50 percent of respondents said they only have “some” confidence that the probe will end with a fair report, while merely 43 percent said that they had a “good amount” of confidence.
That slip in confidence extends to Democrats. Slightly more than 60 percent said the report will be fair, while one-third said they had “just some” confidence. A majority of independents and Republicans, 53 percent and 22 percent, respectively, have little confidence that Mueller’s final report will be even-handed.
Backlash?
The poll was conducted last Monday through Thursday, finishing up the day before Mueller sent a SWAT team to Roger Stone’s Florida home in the early morning to arrest and charge him on process charges stemming from the special counsel’s investigation. The FBI’s aggressive tactics were widely criticized as an abuse of power, but its impact is not reflected in the poll.
Still, the poll appears to show that the public is growing tired of impeachment talk and the Mueller probe. While the investigation is expected to wrap up soon, it has been dragging on for nearly two years and still hasn’t produced evidence of collusion.
The WaPo report noted that the previous high of 49 percent support for impeachment came immediately after Cohen was indicted on campaign finance charges in August, which caused a spike in impeachment talk.
The new poll was taken after a stream of media embarrassments about Russia-gate, including an anonymously sourced New York Times story which claimed that the FBI opened an inquiry into Trump on suspicion that he was a Russian agent. More notable is the recently disproven Buzzfeed story, which claimed that Trump suborned perjury from Cohen and sent the media into impeachment hysterics for a week, before a rare public statement from Mueller disputed the report.
Perhaps more Americans are beginning to see the media’s reporting on Russia, Mueller and the related impeachment speculation as a bunch of hot air. The drumbeats of “Russia, Russia, Russia” from the left may finally be prompting a backlash.
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