55 percent oppose impeachment proceedings against Trump: poll

A majority of Americans in a new poll published Sunday oppose Congress launching impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

An ABC News-Washington Post survey found that 55 percent of respondents oppose beginning impeachment proceedings, compared to 40 percent who would support the move. Those figures differ from an August survey, which showed 49 percent as backing impeachment proceedings.

{mosads}The polled showed a double-digit decline in the number of Democrats who would back the move.

Of those that identified as Democrats, 64 percent support launching impeachment proceedings, down from 75 percent in August. Just 7 percent of Republican respondents support impeachment proceedings, and 42 percent of independents said the same.

The poll surveyed 1,001 people from Jan. 21-24 and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

While some rank-and-file Democrats have raised the prospect of launching impeachment proceedings against the president, the party’s congressional leaders have said they are not focused on removing Trump from office unless there is clear bipartisan consensus.

A number of Democrats have said they would like to wait until special counsel Robert Mueller finishes his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election before possibly pursuing impeachment. The Mueller investigation has implicated six former Trump associates thus far, though the poll was conducted prior to the Friday arrest of longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) said Sunday that it is “certainly not appropriate right now” to move forward with impeachment.