Poll: Americans split on impeaching Trump

Americans in a new poll are evenly split on impeaching President Trump in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

Almost half of Americans – 48 percent – questioned in a NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released early Sunday said they believe Congress should not hold impeachment hearings.

By comparison, a combined 49 percent said Congress should either begin impeachment hearings now or continue investigating to see if there’s enough evidence to hold them in the future.

{mosads}The poll comes weeks after a redacted version of Mueller’s report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election was released to the public. The special counsel wrote that he did not find evidence of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but declined to reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice in the investigation. 

Pollsters in the NBC/WSJ survey found that 60 percent said Trump has been dishonest in the Russia investigation. Only one-third said Mueller’s report clears the president of wrongdoing.

Eight in 10 Republicans said Trump should be allowed to finish his term, while 30 percent of Democrats said they want impeachment hearings now. Fifty percent of Democratic respondents want to wait for more evidence, pollsters found.

“We see a divided country with Republicans saying move on, Democrats saying dig in and independents in the middle saying hold on,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates.

Trump’s job approval rating rose 3 points since March, with 46 percent of Americans now approving of his performance in office. The change is within the poll’s margin of error, NBC noted. 

The poll of 900 adults, conducted April 28 to May 1, has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.