Poll: Americans overwhelmingly say impeachment hearings won't change their minds

The country is witnessing one of only a handful of times in its history that Congress has gone through with public hearings on whether to impeach a president. And yet, the overwhelming majority of Americans across parties say nothing they hear in the inquiry will change their minds on impeachment, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.

Half of Americans said they approve of the impeachment inquiry — about the same as the poll found last month. Respondents are also split on whether they think Trump should be impeached and removed from office.

But 65 percent of Americans say they can't imagine any information or circumstances during the impeachment inquiry where they might change their minds about their position on impeachment. Just 30 percent say, yes, it's possible.

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It's a tangible example of just how locked in most Americans are in their partisan positions, even as nearly a dozen people have either testified or are set to testify in the impeachment inquiry. The poll was conducted Nov. 11-15 — before, during and after the testimonies of the first three witnesses to be called in the inquiry.

Eight more people are slated to testify this week. The inquiry centers on the accusation that Trump, through his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others, pressured Ukraine to conduct investigations of conspiracy theories related to the 2016 presidential campaign and Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in exchange for military aid and a White House meeting for Ukraine's president.

"We're really not seeing either a backlash or a positive," said Barbara Carvalho, director of the Marist Poll, of the impeachment inquiry. "What we're seeing is people just locking in."

Democratic leaders held off on aggressively pursuing impeachment for months fearing a backlash from the public. But, so far, that hasn't happened.

By a 47-41 percent margin, Americans say they are more likely to support impeachment based on what they've heard or read from the testimonies and evidence presented. And the testimonies could actually be serving to harden their views — 86 percent of Democrats said they are now more likely to support impeachment after hearing testimony and evidence while 83 percent of Republicans said they are less likely to now support impeachment.

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Some 70 percent of registered voters say they've been paying "very" or "fairly" close attention to the House impeachment inquiry. And 53 percent of those paying at least fairly close attention say they're more likely to support impeachment.

But Democrats are the ones following most closely with 78 percent saying they're doing so, as compared to 68% of Republicans and 66% of independents.

Half of people say they approve of the impeachment inquiry — 50 percent — compared to 43 percent who don't. That's about the same as in the poll a month ago (52%-43%). But Americans are pretty much split down the middle — 45 percent to 44 percent — on whether they think Trump should be impeached and removed from office.

There is little question, however, what Americans think of Trump's conduct on that now-infamous July 25 call, in which Trump asked the president of Ukraine for a "favor" to conduct the investigations.

Seventy percent say it is not acceptable for a president to ask foreign leader to investigate a political opponent. That includes 53 percent of Republicans who say it's either unacceptable (37 percent) or they're unsure (16 percent).

But the question is: is that impeachable?

"They think it's wrong," Carvalho said. "They disagree on whether it's impeachable or not."

Most Americans also think the whistleblower's identity should be protected — 56 percent say so; 39 percent say the person should be revealed. There's a big partisan split, however, with 83 percent of Democrats saying the person should be protected, and 78 percent of Republicans saying the person should be revealed.

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2020 — a fluid race

On the 2020 presidential contest, 69 percent of Democrats say they're happy with the field. Less than a quarter say they're not.

Three-quarters of Democrats also say they still haven't made up their minds on who to vote for, down only 7 points since July, the last time the question was asked in the survey.

The survey also asked a battery of candidate qualities that would make a voter most "enthusiastic" to vote for that person.

Being a woman is the most desirable quality in a candidate among all registered voters. But there were big differences by party. Democrats would be most "enthusiastic" about voting for a woman, someone who is gay or lesbian or someone under 40.

The top three qualities for Republicans, on the other hand: a business executive, a white man or a woman.

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Trump's standing

President Trump's approval rating has remained remarkably steady since taking office, and this survey shows no different. Trump's job approval in the poll is 41 percent, statistically unchanged from last month when it was 42 percent.

Views of him are slightly worse when it comes to his handling of foreign policy (39 percent approve) and, they nosedive on Syria (33 percent approve). Trump withdrew troops who were fighting alongside Syrian Kurds, something that upset a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

Also remaining steady: the percentage of people saying they definitely will not vote for Trump in 2020 — 52 percent, unchanged from last month.

Of course, 54 percent of voters did not vote for Trump in the 2016 presidential election, either.

The survey of 1,124 adults and 988 registered voters was conducted from Nov. 11 to Nov. 15. Where adults are referenced, the poll has a +/- 3.5 percentage point margin of error. Where registered voters are referenced, it has a +/- 3.8 percentage point margin of error. There are 453 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents with a margin of error of +/- 5.7 percentage points.

Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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