Fifty percent of Americans now say they support articles of impeachment against Trump
- A majority of Americans support impeaching President Donald Trump, a new Insider poll found.
- At 50.2% backing impeachment, the majority is slim - but the number is a marked rise from three previous weeks of consecutive polling.
- Support for House Democrats' impeachment probe has risen in step, from 52% to 57% in a month's time.
- Opposition to both impeachment and the impeachment inquiry has stayed steady over four weeks, suggesting that those who were undecided on the issue are moving in favor of the impeachment process.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Half of Americans say they support impeaching President Donald Trump, the highest amount of support shown in four weeks of consecutive polling by Insider.
Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last month announced a formal impeachment inquiry - an investigation that may lead to articles of impeachment being drafted against Trump - Insider has regularly polled adults across the US to find out where the public stands on the issue.
Each week, our polls have asked two identical questions to a new sample of more than 1,000 Americans: One question that gauges support for impeaching Trump, and one that measures support for House Democrats' impeachment inquiry.
Americans have stayed steady until this week
Throughout our first three weeks of polling, a consistent plurality of respondents said they "support" or "strongly support" impeachment when asked, "Impeachment is the first step in the process of removing a president from office. Do you think the House of Representatives should impeach President Trump?"
That changed this week.
1,096 respondents Sept. 25-26, 1,083 respondents Oct. 3-4, 1,095 respondents Oct. 16-17, 1,075 respondents Oct. 25-26.
Insider's most recent poll found that respondents who support impeaching Trump edged over the majority threshold, with 50.2% of survey-takers backing impeachment. Previously, support had lingered between 45% and 47%.
1,096 respondents Sept. 25-26, 1,083 respondents Oct. 3-4, 1,095 respondents Oct. 16-17, 1,075 respondents Oct. 25-26.
A comparable trend held true for respondents who reported backing the impeachment inquiry.
When asked, "Do you believe launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump for soliciting foreign interference in a US election is the right thing to do?," 57.1% of those surveyed responded with "probably yes" or "definitely yes."
The figure is a noteworthy five percentage point increase from our previous poll, which found that a modest 52% majority backed the probe.
In a polarizing battle, Democrats might be gaining leverage
Democrats and Republicans - defined in our polls by which party's primary or caucus respondents plan to vote in - have fluctuated discernibly in opinion, indicating how partisan and capricious voters are when it comes to impeachment.
Tellingly, the level of opposition to impeachment has stayed constant among respondents on the whole, even while favor has risen. The results suggest that Democrats might be starting to win over the large contingent of the public who are on the fence about impeachment.
Compared to week one, when nearly a quarter of survey-takers reported uncertainty on impeaching Trump, the proportion of those who said they "neither support nor oppose impeachment" and those who "don't know" has lowered to a fifth. If Democrats can continue courting the undecided, the party stands to keep gaining.
Read more:
Democrats just dropped a big hint that they have everything they need to impeach Trump
Nancy Pelosi says the public backs Trump's impeachment amid new polls
SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Total 1,075 respondents collected October 25-26, 2019, a margin of error plus or minus 3.09 percentage points with a 95% confidence level. 1,096 respondents September 25-26, 1,083 respondents October 3-4, 1,095 respondents October 16-17.