Opinion: Why don’t Americans want to impeach Trump?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talks to the media at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday. By Jennifer Rubin Jennifer Rubin Opinion writer covering politics and policy, foreign and domestic Email Bio Follow Opinion writer May 3 at 12:35 PM Americans’ heightened aversion to impeachment — 29 percent favor impeachment in the latest Quinnipiac poll, while 66 percent do not — seems unrelated to a belief in President Trump’s innocence or approval of his performance.
So why the reluctance to impeach? There is no definitive answer to the question, but perhaps Trump critics fear Congress won’t be able to do other things if it is enmeshed in impeachment . Others might recognize that Republicans are so devoted to Trump that impeachment will be fruitless, and perhaps spur him to behave even more outrageously once he “wins” in the Senate trial.
Certainly, the House should demand to hear from key witnesses as well as Attorney General William P. Barr and Mueller. That means enforcing subpoenas for documents and for testimony as well as holding noncomplying witnesses in contempt. If Trump is seen directly threatening witnesses or ordering them to disregard a subpoena, Congress can make the case to the public that we cannot leave him in office until 2020.
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