With less than a week before the U.S. Senate is set to begin its impeachment trial of Donald Trump on charges he incited the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, half of Americans say the Senate should convict Trump, compared to 45 percent who say he shouldn’t be convicted, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll of 1,075 adults released today (Thursday, Feb. 4).
Among Democrats, the split was, not surprisingly, 86 percent to 11 percent in favor of convicting Trump. Independents also favored a conviction, 49 percent to 45 percent. And, again not surprisingly, Republicans are against convicting Trump by an 86 percent to 12 percent margin.
Three months after Biden won election on Nov. 3, four weeks after violent insurrectionists attacked the U.S Capitol and failed to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote, and two weeks after President Biden was inaugurated — and despite ruling from more than 60 federal and state courts rejecting Trump’s claims — more than three-quarters of Republicans still say they believe there was widespread voter fraud last November.
A majority Americans overall don’t believe Trump’s voter fraud lies — 59 percent to 36 percent — while Democrats reject those claims by a 95 percent to 4 percent margin. The margin among Independents is 59 percent to 35 percent, while Republicans buy into Trump’s lies by a margin of 76 percent to 19 percent.
Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said, “The impeachment question is framed by two distinctly different versions of history and offers as vivid an example of the chasm between Republicans and Democrats as you can find.”
The polls showed that 75 percent of Americans are either very concerned (48 percent) or somewhat concerned (27 percent) over the possibility continued violence in the U.S. by domestic terrorists emboldened by the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
About 71 percent believe democracy in the U.S. under threat.
See complete results of this and other recent Quinnipiac polls here.
— Tammye Nash
