DESPITE impeachment fatigue reflected in previous polls, it looks like the recent Ukraine scandal has pushed the American people to a tipping point.
President Donald Trump effectively confessed to the scandal through his administration’s “transcript” memo and his own defense of his communications with the Ukrainian officials.
According to the recent Washington Post-Schar School poll, “A majority of Americans say they endorse the decision by House Democrats to begin an impeachment inquiry of President Trump, and nearly half of all adults also say the House should take the additional step and recommend that the president be removed from office.”
As the Post reported, this quick shift of public opinion followed revelations about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian government officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 campaign rival, and Biden’s son Hunter. Even without basis in fact, it was just to dig dirt on Trump’s potential political rival in the 2020 presidential elections using the power and resources of his position to use military aid needed by Ukraine as leverage.
The poll reveals that 58% of Americans now say “the House of Representatives was correct to undertake the inquiry,” with 38% opposing.
In fact, 49% of all adults express the House needs to do more, saying, “The House should take the more significant step to impeach the president and call for his removal from office.”
The poll says “another 6% say they back the start of the inquiry but do not favor removing Trump from office, with the remainder undecided about the president’s ultimate fate.” The Post reported that results among registered voters are almost identical.
While the results of the poll continue to highlight the partisan divisions that surround the Trump presidency and any impeachment inquiry, the Post report pointed out “the degree to which there are defections among Republicans.”
Among Democrats, more than 8 in 10 respondents endorse the impeachment inquiry and nearly 8 in 10 favor a vote to recommend that Trump be removed from office.
Meanwhile, only 3 out of 10 Republicans support the impeachment inquiry, and almost 20%, or 2 out of 10 Republicans say they favor a vote recommending Trump’s removal from office.
Among independents —a majority — 57%, now support the impeachment inquiry with 49% saying the House should vote to remove Trump from office.
The defections among Republicans is revealed by the movement in public opinion toward an impeachment inquiry since a July poll by The Post and ABC among all three groups, with support for the inquiry rising by 25 points among Democrats, 21 points among Republicans and 20 points among independents.
When respondents were asked whether President Trump upholds adequate standards for ethics in government, 60 percent of Americans say he does not, while only 35 percent say he does.
These findings come AFTER several betrayals of public trust and the oath he swore by when he took office, as outlined by the Slate among others:
Trump’s abuse of power revealed in the Mueller Probe, soliciting help from Russia to dig dirt on Hillary Clinton to help him win the election;
Trump’s “love affair” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un which according to the Slate is their connivance “to lie about North Korea’s arsenal;
Trump’s covering up intelligence about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s role in the murder of U.S. legal resident/Saudi Arabia dissident/Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi;
Trump’s pressuring Israel to deny entry to four Democratic congresswomen of color who are critical of him— all born in the United States except for one who is a naturalized refugee: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib.
These poll results came BEFORE the news report about the second whistleblower from the intelligence community that had firsthand knowledge about Trump’s call with Ukrainian officials.
Just this week, another bombshell: Trump threatened to ‘decimate’ Turkey’s economy if it injures U.S. troops. Members of the Republican Party who have always defended and supported the president openly rebuked Trump over his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from north-eastern Syria.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a report by The Guardian: “A precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria would only benefit Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime…and it would increase the risk that Isis and other terrorist groups regroup.”
Senator Lindsay Graham wrote on Twitter that if the plan goes ahead, he will introduce a Senate resolution opposing it and seeking reversal of the decision. He added, as reported by the Guardian: “We will introduce bipartisan sanctions against Turkey if they invade Syria and will call for their suspension from NATO if they attack Kurdish forces who assisted the U.S. in the destruction of the ISIS Caliphate.”
Nikki Haley, Trump’s former UN ambassador, is reported by The Guardian to have admonished Trump without mentioning his name. “We must always have the backs of our allies, if we expect them to have our back,” she tweeted. “The Kurds were instrumental in our successful fight against Isis in Syria. Leaving them to die is a big mistake. #TurkeyIsNotOurFriend”
These are on the foreign relations front. There are transgressions alleged and are being investigated on the abuse of power to advance and protect Trump’s financial interest.
Abangan ang susunod na kabanata!
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
