A majority of Americans want President Donald Trump removed from office after he played a leading role in inciting Wednesday’s deadly right-wing mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published Friday.
Fifty-seven percent of people who responded to the national opinion survey (pdf) said they favored the removal of the president. There was considerable variation depending on partisan affiliation, with 88% of Democrats but just 24% of Republicans favoring Trump’s removal. Just over half of self-described independents favored Trump’s ouster.
When it came to how the president should leave office, 30% wanted to see the 25th Amendment invoked, 14% favored impeachment, and 13% said Trump should resign. The remaining 43% said the president should finish his term, which ends on January 20.
Seventy percent of respondents who voted for Trump in November’s election said they disapprove of the president’s actions. However, one in eight people who took the survey said they supported the Capitol insurrection, with 5% calling the rioters “patriots.” Most respondents (59%) said the insurrectionists were “criminals.”
Fully 79% of all respondents—including two-thirds of Republicans and Trump voters—described the Capitol mob as “criminals” or “fools.”
Incited by calls from Trump and people close to him to “take back our country” in a “trial by combat,” hundreds of die-hard Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday while legislators were attempting to certify the Electoral College vote affirming Joe Biden as the nation’s next president. The attack, which left five people dead, sent lawmakers and staff scrambling for safety as the MAGA mob ransacked and looted the building before police could restore order.
Since the attack, there has been a wave of Trump administration resignations and growing calls for either the impeachment or removal of the president under the 25th Amendment. Vice President Mike Pence, however, reportedly does not support the latter.
According to multiple reports, House Democrats plan to introduce misconduct charges on Monday that could result in an unprecedented second impeachment for Trump. Also on Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a letter that “if the president does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action” to impeach him.
“We have the articles of impeachment already drafted,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who on Wednesday announced she was drafting the papers. “Monday isn’t early enough. The nation is waiting for us to respond ASAP.”
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
