1.6 Impeachment and the Public

1. What is the most basic finding of the polls that have been released in the last week?

There has been an uptick in the support for impeachment.

2. What did YouGov and the Economist find that most Americans feel about the president's actions?

They found that 52 percent of Americans said that it is inappropriate for the president to request a foreign government open an investigation into a potential political opponent. 

3. What did that same poll find about American attitudes toward the president if he withheld funding to the Ukraine?

In that same poll, 62 percent of Americans said that it is inappropriate for the president to threaten withholding foreign aid to a country if it refuses to "take an action which personally benefits the President." 

4. What change in attitudes did the Quinnipiac poll find?

In the Quinnipiac poll, 54 percent of Americans thought Trump had “attempted to derail or obstruct the investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 election,” and 46 percent thought Trump had committed crimes while president, but only 29 percent said Congress should begin the impeachment process.

5. What is important about the time frame in which the poll was conducted?

The timing of the conducting of the poll is significant because it was put into field on September 19, which is a full day before the story of Trump's call with Zelensky was released, and only stayed in the field until Monday, the day before Nancy Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry. 

6. What recent related events are not accounted for in the results of these polls?

It does not account for the public opinion on Nancy Pelosi's official announcement of the impeachment inquiry. It also doesn't account for the voice memo of the call or testimony made by the Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.

7. According to these polls, how many Americans are not paying attention to these developments?

About 42 percent of American's are either not paying attention to these developments or they don't have enough of an opinion as of right now.

8. What do other polls say about the current state of the race to be the Democratic nominee?

Other polls say that Democratic nominees are currently in the lead by about 6.8 percentage points. This number has remained fairly constant.