Most Americans say Trump must be impeached and removed: Poll

A majority of Americans say President Donald Trump’s request to Ukraine’s leader to investigate his political rival was wrong and he should be impeached and removed from office, according to a new poll.

An overwhelming 70 percent of US adults think Trump’s action towards Ukraine was wrong, and a slim majority of Americans, 51 percent, believe Trump’s actions were both wrong and he should be removed from office, the ABC News/Ipsos poll finds.

The survey also finds that just 1 in 4 Americans, 25 percent think that Trump did nothing wrong.

Trump’s request to a foreign leader to investigate one of his main 2020 presidential rivals sits at the heart of the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry in the US House of Representatives.

In addition to the 51 percent, another 19 percent think that Trump's actions were wrong, but that he should neither be impeached by the House nor convicted by the Senate.

Impeachment begins in the House. If the lower chamber of Congress approves impeachment, a trial is then held in the Senate. House members act as the prosecutors; the senators as jurors; the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides.

A two-thirds majority vote is required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president.

Only two American presidents have been impeached by the House, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was convicted by the Senate.

House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry against Trump in September after a whistleblower alleged the Republican president pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

The impeachment probe shifted to a public phase on November 13 after weeks of closed-door interviews in the House.

The ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 58 percent of Americans say they are following the impeachment hearings very closely or somewhat closely.

The unfolding political drama between congressional Democrats and the White House reveals a polarized populace, with Democrats more united in their belief that Trump should be impeached and convicted than Republicans are.

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