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(Reuters) – Fifty-seven percent of Americans want Republican President Donald Trump to be immediately removed from office after he encouraged a protest this week that escalated into a deadly riot inside the US Capitol, according to a Reuters / Ipsos poll.
Most of them were Democrats, however, and Republicans appear to be much more supportive of Trump serving the last days of his term, which ends January 20.
The national public opinion poll, conducted on Thursday and Friday, also showed that seven out of 10 of those who voted for Trump in November opposed the action of staunch supporters who stormed the Capitol as lawmakers gathered to certify the election victory for Democrat Joe. Biden.
Nearly 70% of Americans surveyed also said they disapprove of Trump’s actions in the run-up to Wednesday’s assault. In a rally earlier that day, Trump had urged thousands of his supporters to march on Capitol Hill.
The chaos on Capitol Hill, in which one police officer and four others were killed, has been widely condemned by both Democrats and Republicans.
Democrats in the House of Representatives plan to press misconduct charges Monday that could lead to a second impeachment against Trump, said two sources familiar with the matter.
“If the president does not leave office imminently and voluntarily, Congress will proceed with our action,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. [L1N2JJ0UU]
DIVISIONS
Public reaction is divided by political party, as it has been on nearly every major issue of the Trump era. While nearly everyone condemned the violent confrontation, calls for Trump’s impeachment came primarily from Democrats.
In total, the majority of Americans who said they want Trump to leave office before his term ends include about nine out of 10 Democrats polled, but only two out of 10 Republicans.
About 30% said the president should be removed using the provisions of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which allows the vice president and cabinet to remove the president if he cannot fulfill his official functions.
Another 14% said Congress should impeach and remove Trump from office, and 13% said Trump should simply resign.
Trump, who lost the November 3 election by some seven million votes, called on his supporters Wednesday to march on Congress, telling them at a rally that “they will never get our country back in weakness.”
A small minority of the American public, 12%, said they supported the actions of the people who participated in the riots.
Seventy-nine percent of adults, including two-thirds of Republicans and Trump voters, described the participants as “criminals” or “fools.” Nine percent viewed them as “concerned citizens” and 5% called them “patriots.”
The Reuters / Ipsos survey was conducted online, in English, across the United States. It collected responses from 1,005 American adults, including 339 who said they voted for Trump. The results have a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 4 percentage points.
For more information about the survey: https://tmsnrt.rs/3pYTiuD
(Reporting by Chris Kahn, edited by Soyoung Kim and Sonya Hepinstall)
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