Americans seem divided on whether the Senate should push Donald Trump out of the office with 51 percent of them saying he should be convicted, according to a poll released Monday.
In the CNN/SSRS survey, 45 percent of Americans said the Senate ought not to cast a ballot to convict and expel the president and 4 percent of the respondents said they had nothing to say on the issue.
The poll also showed a slight shift from a similar survey held last December, with 47 percent of Americans saying Trump should not be removed and 45 percent saying they want him ousted from the White House.
This only shows that 58 percent of the 1,156 respondents felt like Trump totally abused his power of the presidency and 57 percent said that he really did obstruct the House from investigating him properly.
But the parties look like they are standing up for their decision on this one – 89 percent of Democrats believe he should be removed from office and convicted while only 8 percent of Republicans agree. Independent voters are split.
In this case, Trump might be acquitted in the Republican-controlled chamber.
On Wednesday evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed the articles of impeachment – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The articles are then delivered to the Senate side of Congress by the seven Democratic impeachment managers which she announced earlier that day.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell announced Wednesday that the impeachment trial will be held Tuesday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Kentucky Republican has not yet informed the Democrats regarding the rules of the trial, but an aide said it could feature 24 hours for opening states for both the defense and prosecution with two days to spread that time out.
McConnell also added the Senate would decide whether witnesses will be allowed in the trial.
Democrats have demanded they be permitted to call witnesses, like Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, but Republicans insisted they would then call witnesses like former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and the anonymous whistle-blower.
Americans agree that witnesses should be called, with 69 percent saying the trial should include testimony from those who did not testify in the House impeachment investigation.
The poll, however, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points and was taken January 16-19, the days after the articles were turned over to the Senate.
Lead Democratic prosecution manager Adam Schiff read the articles on the Senate floor Thursday, while Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts was then sworn in to preside over the hearing as he swore in all 100 senators.
This week will feature opening arguments.
The team of Donald Trump appointed attorneys Alan Dershowitz, liberal Democrats, and Ken Starr to present arguments against impeaching.
Dershowitz emphasized that the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress are not considered as impeachable offenses as detailed by high crimes and misdemeanors in the Constitution.
“Trump promises to cure cancer and AIDS at first 2020 campaign rally”
[rumble video_id=v57erx domain_id=u7nb2]