Donald Trump Claims Impeachment Support Is In The 20s, And Fact-Checkers Aren’t Having It
On Monday morning, Donald Trump took to Twitter, as he often does, this time claiming that the number of people who support the impeachment proceedings against him have dropped dramatically. The president stated that the percentage of those supporting the impeachment inquiry has dropped as low as the 20s. But fact-checkers couldn’t let the claim go without comment. In reality, they point out, the lowest impeachment support has been since the proceedings began is 43 percent, according to Mediaite.
“Support for Impeachment is dropping like a rock, down into the 20’s in some Polls. Dems should now get down to work and finally approve USMCA, and much more!” Trump tweeted on Monday morning.
Immediately, people began to question the claim, noting that there hasn’t been a single poll that supports what Trump said.
Daily Mail reporter David Martosko wrote in a reply tweet that the lowest number he could find since September, well before the hearings about any of the president’s misconduct began, was 43 percent.
“The lowest support for impeachment in any public poll since they started coming out in September is 43% (Emerson University poll last week),” he wrote. “None of those surveys has ever shown that 50% of the country or more opposes impeachment.”
Martosko suggested that perhaps Trump got his numbers from that same Emerson College poll, which indicated only 23.6 percent of independent voters support impeachment. However, overall, support for the inquiry is well into the 40s and often higher.
Jacob Pramuk, a politics reporter for CNBC, also fact-checked Trump’s claim.
“I have not seen a single poll showing support for impeachment in the 20s,” he wrote. “Rolling FiveThirtyEight average shows 51% support an inquiry, while about 46% back impeachment and removal.”
FiveThirtyEight compiles data from numerous polls to show what support for impeachment is across multiple polls, and their numbers show that the last time impeachment was below 40 percent was in late September. Since then, the numbers in November hover between 45 and 48 percent, in general.
Trump’s tweet is another in a long line of attacks that he has made on the investigation into his conduct earlier this year regarding his interactions with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump is accused of using the power of his office to pressure the eastern European leader to say he was investigating Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, allegedly to benefit his own campaign and hurt Biden’s bid for president.
Insiders say that Trump has been “frustrated” and upset by the impeachment proceedings, and he often calls them a “witch hunt” and a targeted campaign against him that began before he was elected.
Witch Hunt! https://t.co/CvZtyHMsGo
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2019
