In a polarized electorate, attitudes about the severity of
Trump's actions broke strongly along partisan lines, with Democrats three times
as likely to find the conversation a very or somewhat serious problem -- 91% of
Democrats compared with 32% of Republicans.
Democrats also were
even more likely to have the most intense feelings, with nearly 3 in 4, about
72%, saying they thought the president's comments were a very serious problem,
compared to 41% of Independents.
Republicans were
less intense in their skepticism about the seriousness of the problem than
Democrats were in their conviction it was a problem -- 37% of Republicans said
it wasn't serious at all, but 13% of Republicans responded that it was a very
serious problem compared to only 2% of Democrats who said the president's
actions related to Ukraine were not a problem at all.
Still, Trump's actions
during the phone conversation were not surprising to a large majority of
Americans. About 83% responded that they were not so surprised or not surprised
at all that Trump had such a conversation, with little variation by
partisanship. Only 3% of Americans said they were very surprised.
Amid the rapidly unfolding political drama, only about 1 in
4, or 24%, said they were following news of Trump's call very closely. About 4
in 10 said they were following it somewhat closely.
Those who said that
they were keeping a close eye on the news were more likely to be Democrats and
more likely to think the conversation was a serious problem.
This ABC News/Ipsos poll comes days after a fast-moving series of
events, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's announcement on
Tuesday that House Democrats were moving forward with a formal impeachment
inquiry -- after an
overwhelming parade of members of her own caucus backed the move.
The survey did not include a question about respondents'
support or opposition to an impeachment inquiry.
But early polling
conducted early last week, before the release of the whistleblower complaint on
Thursday, showed a shift in support for an impeachment inquiry since Pelosi's
announcement.
In an NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll conducted Wednesday, 49% of
Americans approved of House Democrats launching an impeachment inquiry, while
46% disapproved. In the same survey, a substantial majority of voters, about
70%, said they were paying attention to the news.
First published in
Yahoo news
Comments
Post a Comment