Poll finds majority back charging Trump for inciting Capitol riot

A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 54 percent of Americans believe  President Trump should be charged with inciting a riot for the mob that stormed the Capitol last week. 

A majority of people in the poll believe Trump should be charged, and 56 percent said Trump should be removed from office and not allowed to run again.

However, there was a stark difference between Democrats and Republicans over whether Trump should be allowed to run for the White House again.

Among Democrats, 89 percent said Trump should be removed from office and disqualified from running again, while 85 percent of Republicans did not think he should be prevented from running for office again.

Trump was impeached for the second time Wednesday under the charge of incitement of an insurrection. The Senate will not vote on impeachment until after President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. 

Ten House Republicans voted to impeach Trump, but the vast majority did not, underscoring the partisan divisions at play in the poll. Every Democrat in the chamber voted to impeach Trump.

In the survey, only 18 percent of Republicans said they believed the party should depart from President Trump’s leadership, with 76 percent  believing the party should continue to follow Trump’s leadership. 

It would take a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate to impeach Trump. That would require at least 17 Republicans to vote for impeachment.

This could also trigger a second vote to prevent Trump for running from office again. Only a majority would have to approve this second vote for it to be approved.

The poll was conducted between Jan. 10 and Jan. 13 and surveyed 1,002 adults across the country. The margin of error was 3.5 percentage points.