Last week’s Senate impeachment trial proved that nothing divides the United States quite like former President Donald Trump.
In new data that show just how extreme the political division is today, likely voters split evenly in their reaction to the trial and case for impeachment put forward by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s team. Partisanship led the way.
The latest Rasmussen Reports survey asked two questions to roughly 1,000 likely voters on the case.
The first asked about the Democratic case and cribbed from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s assessment of the trial. “Do you agree or disagree with this statement: ‘The case for impeachment presented by House Democrats in the Senate trial of former President Trump ‘was powerful, emotional, and strong?’”
On that, voters split evenly, 45% agreed, and 45% disagreed. Among the partisans, 73% of Democrats agreed, while 69% of Republicans disagreed.
The other question asked about the effectiveness of the Democratic case against Trump and used a phrase spoken by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. “Do you agree or disagree with this statement: In presenting their case in the Senate impeachment trial, House Democrats did not ‘come remotely close to demonstrating that President Trump’s conduct violated the law?’”
The split was nearly identical — 45% agree to 43% disagree. Ditto for the partisan breakdown with 64% of Republicans agreeing to 62% of Democrats disagreeing.
Remarkably, and maybe predictably, those reactions came even though very few watched the Senate show. Rasmussen found that just 17% watched the full impeachment trial.
Democrats showed more interest in the impeachment trial than other voters. Fifty-one percent (51%) of Democrats said they watched all or most of Trump’s Senate trial on TV, compared to 34% of Republicans and 36% of unaffiliated voters.
Given the fact that Democrats were more likely to watch Trump’s Senate trial on TV, it’s not surprising that 66% of those who say they watched the entire trial agree with Schumer that the case against Trump presented by House Democrats “was powerful, emotional, and strong.” By contrast, among those who didn’t watch any of the trial on TV, 63% disagreed with Schumer’s statement.
Also not surprising is that President Joe Biden’s strongest supporters were more confident in the impeachment case against Trump. Of voters who say they strongly approve of Biden’s job performance as president, 87% agree with Schumer that the case against Trump “was powerful, emotional, and strong.” Among voters who strongly disapprove of Biden, however, 81% agree with Cruz that House Democrats did not “come remotely close” to proving Trump violated the law.
