This is worth noting from the latest CNN poll on Trump’s impeachment, which basically shows no movement (50/43 for impeachment and removal):
Looking at the 538 polling averages, support flipped when the Ukraine stuff came out and has held pretty steady since. There’s enough polling on this, and enough time has passed, that quoting one poll or another to prove a point doesn’t make any sense.
The crosstabs [pdf] from that CNN poll show that 23% of the respondents haven’t been following the impeachment news closely (or at all), but only 1% don’t have an opinion (probably the textbook definition of the kind of people who will pick up a polling call – they’ve got opinions, dammit!). So maybe more hearings will move the needle, but we’re pretty dug in.
BGinCHI
Dems: Obviously he did it and the process needs to play out.
GOP: Obviously he did it and the process isn’t fair unless we do it.
Barbara
All I can say is that none of this is good news for Susan Collins or Cory Gardner. Probably not too good for Joni Ernst either.
Kent
Of course none of this should fucking matter. Senators should be doing their duty as jurors irrespective of public opinion.
Can I have a pony too?
tobie
The historical tabs are interesting, as is the general trend line on impeachment. I feel like the media is pushing the line that the needle hasn’t moved on impeachment so Dems should just stop it. It fits the self-serving narrative they’ve created for themselves, in which they are the supposedly impartial arbiters faced with two equally juvenile parties engaged in a cat fight in the schoolyard. Michelle Wolf was right: No matter what the media says they love Trump because he’s good their bottom line. (Sorry for the downer comment. I’m just depressed as hell.)
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: The media is another arm of the R party.
Mike in DC
I generally think they should write the report, draft some articles of impeachment, then continue the hearings into January “in light of new witnesses and information”. Give Intel another week of testimony (Parnas, Bolton), and throw in some testimony on the Mueller obstruction stuff, emoluments and issues related to Trump’s taxes.
Then look at public polling, and if it’s up, go ahead and add a few more articles before a vote. Should be no more than 5 to 9 articles total, though.
zhena gogolia
People like Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers have been doing the best reporting on the impeachment hearings, boiling it down to simple (but accurate) concepts that people can understand. Colbert repeats “We want you to do us a favor though” like a mantra.
Frankensteinbeck
I was waiting for these polls, and they say what I expected: What moved public opinion was Trump confessing in writing to asking a foreign country to interfere with an American election. That has been drummed into our heads as a crime. The impeachment hearings merely solidify the opinions of people who had already made up their minds.