White House allies are urging Republican lawmakers not to vote to impeach President Trump in an attempt to stem a trickle of defections by warning that they risk losing critical voters in battleground states if they turn against their leader.
A survey conducted by Trump’s campaign pollster in the days after protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol found that people in swing states overwhelmingly want Congress to focus on battling the coronavirus, not impeachment.
But other Republicans say Trump’s appeal as an election-winning machine has evaporated after the party lost the White House and sabotaged hopes of holding two Senate seats in Georgia, and other opinion polls suggest that a majority of voters support impeachment.
It leaves lawmakers facing a familiar decision: weighing the power that Trump continues to hold over a swath of voters against his shortcomings — this time in the way he peddled claims, unsupported by court rulings or his own Department of Justice, about a stolen election that erupted into violence last week.
A poll conducted by John McLaughlin sampled 800 voters in 17 states considered competitive by the Trump campaign.
It found that 60% of voters thought it was a “waste of time” for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to try to impeach and remove the president before Inauguration Day. Impeaching him after Joe Biden was sworn in would be a politically motivated effort to prevent him from running again, according to 74% of all voters.
In a memo based on the polling, McLaughlin said, “Voters strongly prefer that Congress deal with fighting coronavirus and not impeachment.
“Impeachment is viewed as a waste of time and money. Voters believe that the Democrats are playing politics and that continuing to attack the President is making it worse.”
The results are being used by Trump’s allies to remind lawmakers where their best interests lie.
“The polling is overwhelming,” said senior adviser Jason Miller. “Republican members supporting impeachment do so at their own political peril.”
The poll found that some 48% of voters were less likely to vote for a member of Congress that voted for impeachment, with 36% saying they were more likely to do so.
Other surveys suggest the broader public sees things differently. An ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Sunday morning found that 56% of adults were in favor of removing Trump, including 58% of independents.
Trump has seen his support among Republicans slip away. At least five, including third-ranking GOP House leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming, say they will vote to impeach Trump.
“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” she said in a statement. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
And even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a once dependable ally of the White House, is reported to believe Trump committed an impeachable act.
A former Trump adviser said the president was not the election-winning machine he once was and that he was to blame for losing control of the Senate.
“Telling people the election was stolen in Georgia is not the best way to get out voters in a Georgia Senate runoff two months later,” he said.
Veteran GOP strategist Rich Galen said Republicans faced a choice between avoiding a Trumpist primary challenge and saving democracy.
“Trump is toxic,” he said. “The question is whether he is toxic to Republicans, and the answer is not to enough of them yet, but it appears to be moving in that direction.”
