Should Trump Be Impeached And Removed From Office? Pew Surveyed More Than 12,000 Americans

More Americans say they think President Trump did something wrong and should be removed from office than those who believe no action should be taken, a Pew Research Center survey indicated Wednesday.

The survey, released as House managers presented their impeachment case to the Senate, indicated 51% of U.S. adults said they think Trump should be removed from office versus 46% who said Trump should be able to complete his term. The division was mainly along partisan lines with 86% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents saying Trump should remain in office and a nearly identical percentage, 85%, of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents calling for conviction and removal.

More than half of those 65 and older (56%) said Trump should remain in office while 63% of those less than 30 years of age said he would be removed. Among Republicans, the percentage of older Americans in favor of approval fell to 7% while among Democrats there was little variation in sentiment by age.

Clear majorities of black and Hispanic Americans (82% and 66%, respectively) said Trump should be removed compared to 58% of white Americans.

Sixty-three percent of those surveyed said they think Trump definitely or probably did something illegal during his time in office or while he was running for the presidency, and 70% said they believe he definitely or probably did something unethical. Democrats were 91% sure something illegal happened compared to 32% of Republicans.

Less than half of the 12,638 people surveyed Jan. 6-19 said they expect the Senate impeachment trial to be “fair and reasonable.”

Trump’s overall job approval remained steady at 40%, about the same as in September before the formal impeachment inquiry was launched.

“Men, whites, older adults and those with lower levels of education continue to have more positive assessments of the president’s job performance than women, black and Hispanic adults, younger adults and those with higher levels of education,” the survey indicated.

Eighty-four percent of Democrats and 52% of Republicans said they trust what Trump says less than they trusted past presidents.

The Washington Post estimated this week Trump has made 16,241 false or misleading statements in his first three years in office.