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Slim majority of Americans want Senate to convict Trump: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Published 01/22/2021, 04:26 PM
Updated 01/22/2021, 04:35 PM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO:  U.S. President Trump at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Trump at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland

By Chris Kahn

(Reuters) - A slim majority of Americans say former President Donald Trump should be convicted by the Senate of inciting an insurrection and barred from holding public office, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, which showed a sharp partisan divide over the issue.

The national public opinion poll, conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, found that 51% of Americans think Trump should be found guilty for inciting the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. His trial in the Senate is expected to begin in the coming weeks.

Another 37% said Trump should not be convicted and the remaining 12% said they were unsure.

When asked about the former Republican president's political future, 55% said Trump should not be allowed to hold elected office again, while 34% said he should be allowed to do so and 11% said they were unsure.

If the Senate votes to convict Trump, it would need to hold a second vote to bar him from holding office again.

The responses were almost entirely divided along party lines. While nine out of 10 Democrats say Trump should be convicted and barred from holding office again, less than two in 10 Republicans agreed, the poll showed.

The poll also found that 55% percent of Americans approved of President Joe Biden, who took office on Wednesday. In comparison, 43% approved of Trump during his first week of office in 2017, and Trump's level of approval never rose above 50% in weekly polls conducted throughout his four-year term.

The U.S. House of Representatives, which impeached Trump a second time earlier this month, is expected to send the Senate the one article of impeachment on Monday, charging him with "incitement of insurrection." Trump, the only U.S. president to be impeached twice, will also be the first former president to face an impeachment trial in the Senate after leaving office.

Trump's final month in office was a chaotic period during which he continued to falsely claim that the Nov. 3 presidential election had been stolen from him and tried to stop the certification of the results confirming Biden's victory.

At a rally on Jan. 6, Trump encouraged a group of supporters to march toward the Capitol where lawmakers were preparing to certify the election results, telling them "you’ll never take back our country with weakness."

Five people, including a police officer, died in the violence that erupted as Trump loyalists broke past police barriers, entered the Capitol and trashed congressional offices and meeting areas inside.

According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, about six in 10 Republicans still believe the 2020 election was the result of "illegal voting or election rigging," about the same number who felt that way in a poll that ran shortly after the election.

Republicans are split, however, on the question of whether their representatives in Congress should work with Biden on common goals.

Among those respondents who identify as Republican, nearly half said they wanted their congressional representatives to work with the new president "even if that means compromising on issues that are important to me," while four in 10 want them to oppose Biden at every turn "even if it means government can’t respond to urgent issues."

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,115 American adults, including 538 Democrats and 373 Republicans. It has a credibility interval, which is a measure of precision, of 3 percentage points.

Latest comments

Dems impeachment sounds like kids game (wasting time for nothing) if it is not related to Super Power - USA
Thats right, no game, YOUR life.
A majority of American voters voted for Trump. This poll, just like the polls predicting a blue wave is a lie. The election was stolen, everyone knows it. That's why we get banned and censored for mentioning it. Fraud was rampant in multiple states in multiple different ways. That's why Biden needed 25,000 troops at his inauguration instead of 500,000 to 1,000,000 private citizens like every other President that gets elected. This gaslighting by media and journalists got old 3 years ago.
(Marilyn Monroe was from Beta Centauri !!)
 You would believe that if MSM started reporting it.
It's a sad state of affair that Americans can not decide right from wrong. -- The man who committed so many wrongs, disrespected so many women and men, the man who was responsible for so many lives lost including people drinking bleach, yeah, b. s. like this only happens in America, OMG! Americans definitely are not that bright when only a slim majority can see clearly. It's def not a way forward and to outdo America's major enemy. Think of the insiders of the man's team: a news article I'm reading on msn dot com has a heading that reads like this: Trump leaves behind a coterie of frustrated former national security advisers, hardly a confidence vote for his skills, and you're not thinking he might get better over time .. Old men usually don't, especially not the Donald. Americans who can't read right from wrong: Grow up!
You should stop reading official CCP/DNC propaganda.
It wasnt so much the bleach, as the cool-aide.
Dont let the mainstream media put you in the left or right box. That id what they want the American public to do. Free yourself from clouding your view by labeling you blue or red. This impeachment is s waste of time and money and is a diversion. Trump can easily get around this by letting hid son run for election in 2024.
yes but if convi Ted perhaps the next *****head might think.teice before using such devisive tactics .
Beavis or ********head?
This is before any evidence has been presented - once the truth starts flowing about how the rally was created and supported by the white house and staffers - opinions will chance! Have to remember this is day three of an honest white house!
Honest Joe. More like Backpedal Joe.
slim majority, based 0.00034% of the population?
So much for unity, they just keep us divided to hide their greed and incompetence.....
What a waste of time and money. Congress has more urgent matters to tend to.
It is the govt's job to confirm to the people of America what is right and wrong so people like you can learn and make better decisions in the future. The Donald's deeds have been terribly wrong and brushing them under the carpet like you're suggesting will create a bad and dangerous precedent of tolerating unacceptable behavior in people like youngsters who know even less about the events than you.
do you watch Rachel Maddow every night, because you sound Maddowed.
Yes, your opinion is the only one that matters.
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