Americans split on impeachment

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By Caroline Kelly, CNN
Updated 9:07 AM ET, Fri November 1, 2019

... In Friday's poll, 49% of Americans indicated that Trump should be impeached and removed from office, while 47% indicated that he should not ...

... Eighty-two percent of Democrats support removing the President from office, while 13% are against it. Meanwhile, 18% of Republicans back removing Trump, while 82% oppose it. Independents, though, are split ...

Regardless of their views on impeachment, 55% say Trump did something wrong in his dealings with Ukraine, and 60% say it was inappropriate for Trump to involve his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani in his dealings with Ukraine.

Thirty-eight percent of Americans overall approve of Trump's job as president, while 58% disapprove -- and 48% strongly disapprove, according to the newly released poll. Trump's disapproval rating stands at 91% among Democrats, 57% among independents and -- in a record low among Post-ABC polls, the paper reported -- 74% among Republicans ...

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/01/politics/washington-post-abc-november-poll/index.html

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1. Ivanka Trump Tweets Support

https://dailycaller.com/2019/10/31/ivanka-trump-tweets-support-impeachment/

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2. Eric says Democrats floundering

https://www.foxnews.com/media/eric-trump-impeachment-democrats-floundering

[gab13by13]

3. Be very careful with polls,

I tend to ignore them because they are good tools to spread propaganda.

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4. Lara calls impeachment inquiry a gift

https://www.foxnews.com/media/lara-trump-impeachment-inquiry-gift-2020-election

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5. Impeachment May Gain Momentum

November 1, 20195:00 AM ET
RON ELVING

... this week's House vote ... opens the impeachment inquiry to public view and responds to complaints about its secrecy. The vote also may, in the view of legal scholars, strengthen the case for courts to enforce congressional subpoenas that have been issued — or soon will be.

But there may be even more to this moment ... The vote in the House may focus public awareness on what is going on. It may be the event that gives many Americans the sense they need to start paying attention ...

... procedural authorizing votes would never be the headline events people remembered about the Nixon saga, coming so long after the events that really kicked the process into gear. They do not even appear in most timelines of Nixon's long fall ...

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/01/775259234/at-long-last-launch-impeachment-may-gain-momentum-from-first-big-moment

[dameatball]

6. This poll may have been random, but a sample of only 1003 people seems to be a bit small to reflect

such a small margin of error.

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7. Most say inquiry should not be top priority for Congress

BY RACHEL FRAZIN - 11/01/19 09:39 AM EDT

A new poll shows that only about a third of Americans say the impeachment inquiry into President Trump should be a top congressional priority, although a plurality approve of the probe.

The AP-NORC survey found that 33 percent of Americans said the investigation into the president's dealings with Ukraine should be a top priority for Congress. Nineteen percent said it should be an important priority, 16 percent said it should be a low priority and 31 percent said it shouldn't be done at all.

More respondents approved than disapproved of impeachment in the poll, with 47 percent supporting it and 38 percent opposing it ...

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/468485-most-say-impeachment-inquiry-should-not-be-top-priority-for-congress-poll

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8. Senate GOP shifts tone

BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 10/31/19 06:00 AM EDT

Senate Republicans are taking the House impeachment proceedings against President Trump more seriously as damaging revelations against the president mount and the possibility of a quick dismissal of the charges shrinks.

Earlier this year, GOP senators pledged to quickly quash any articles of impeachment passed by the House. But as the Democrats compile more evidence that Trump withheld military assistance from Ukraine to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, they are adopting a more sober tone.

While no Senate Republican has said the charges against Trump rise to the level of being an impeachable offense, many have expressed concern over the drip-drip of damaging revelations.

Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) was the latest GOP senator to express concerns Wednesday even though he argued that the House has yet to provide any evidence that would support actually removing Trump from office ...

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/468246-senate-gop-shifts-tone-on-impeachment

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9. White House claims House resolution unconstitutional

By Tara Subramaniam
Updated 10:52 PM ET, Thu October 31, 2019

... In a section authorizing the Judiciary Committee to conduct proceedings, the resolution notes these should include "such procedures as to allow for the participation of the President and his counsel" ...

According to a fact sheet released by the House Rules Committee, these procedures include the opportunity for the President or his counsel to present their case, attend hearings, request additional testimony, cross-examine witnesses and raise an objection to testimony given. There is a caveat that "if the President unlawfully refuses to cooperate with congressional requests," then the extent of the administration's participation is at the committee chairman's discretion.

While the Trump administration might not like the impeachment resolution on principle, the resolution is devoted to outlining the procedures, rights of all parties and consequences. Therefore, it's inaccurate to say the resolution fails to provide due process, when due process is interpreted by legal scholars as the right to fair procedures that must be predetermined before any attempts to "deprive" them of "life, liberty or property."

William Banks, a law professor at Syracuse University, told CNN that ...
"There is nothing in the Constitution or any law, nor any rules of the House, that prescribes a particular procedure for impeachment proceedings" ...

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/31/politics/impeachment-resolution-response-factm-check/index.html

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10. Inquiry Is legitimate

Michael Gerhardt
Constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law

... Speaker Nancy Pelosi was solemn: “We’re not here to call bluffs. We’re here to find the truth, to uphold the Constitution of the United States. This is not a game for us; this is deadly serious.”

... Three different committees of the House of Representatives, with their Republican and Democratic members in attendance, have called a series of witnesses, who have all confirmed the whistle-blower’s report that Trump had improperly solicited foreign intervention on his behalf in the 2020 presidential election. And now the House has formally approved an impeachment resolution affirming all the steps the Democrats have taken thus far in the investigation and setting out the roadmap for the rest of the inquiry, which will include the additional measure of holding public hearings.

The seriousness and circumspection of this process stands in marked contrast to the president’s attacks on it. He and his defenders have declared the inquiry not just a “sham” but a “coup.” Some Republican commentators called Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council’s top expert on Ukraine, who testified before the committees in closed-door sessions, guilty of “espionage.” Several members of Congress, who had been attending closed-door hearings investigating Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine, protested publicly against those hearings as “Soviet”-style star chambers. And even though he and Republicans in Congress had repeatedly asked for a formal impeachment authorization, the president greeted the news of the resolution’s passage by declaring, “The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!” Once again, Republicans have moved the goal posts in their quest to defend the president’s conduct as perfectly legitimate and the current hearings as anything but.

Their argument is not merely wrong but dangerous, and it seems to be gaining traction in the national conversation. I have been working on federal impeachment law for more than two decades—since I published my first book on the topic—and in that time I have been asked numerous questions about impeachment, typically about the scope of impeachable offenses. But I have never heard assertions like those being made today on the president’s behalf, which question the legitimacy of the process itself and the Constitution’s constraints on presidential power ...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/why-impeachment-inquiry-legally-legitimate/601165/

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11. Schiff says rules are much the same as for Nixon and Clinton

CBS NEWS October 31, 2019, 6:44 PM

... "The rules are very much the same as they were during the Nixon impeachment, during the Clinton impeachment," Schiff told "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell. "All they have to argue is process and even the president has acknowledged that's a failure."

Lawmakers voted mostly along party lines to approve the resolution that authorizes the House Intelligence Committee to hold public hearings. It's only the third vote of its kind.

... Republican members .. denounced what they called a "Soviet-style" nature of the investigation ...

"I think the public will see that the process has been fair. Both sides have had ample opportunity to question the witnesses. I think they will see facts that cause them great concern about the president abusing the power of his office," Schiff said.

Schiff said he's also concerned about "the president's threats" to the whistleblower who brought attention to Mr. Trump's call with Ukraine's leader ...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/adam-schiff-impeachment-resolution-rules-are-very-much-the-same-as-nixon-clinton-2019-10-31/

[uponit7771]

12. This poll is an outlier for independents, nearly 10% off of other polls. Will watch for trend

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13. Judge pushes back on lwyers trying to block witnesses

October 31, 201910:58 PM ET
BOBBY ALLYN

... The hearing, before U.S. District Judge Ketanji Jackson in Washington, was the first time Trump lawyers tested in open court their attempt to block White House aides from cooperating with the impeachment inquiry into the president.

Jackson at times struggled with the Trump administration's argument that former White House counsel Don McGahn does not have to comply with a subpoena filed by House Democrats for him to sit for testimony related to conversations he was party to that could implicate Trump in possible articles of impeachment for obstruction of justice.

"So what does the separation of powers mean to you then?" Jackson asked ...

James Burnham, a lawyer with the Justice Department, responded that applying "absolute immunity" to current and former aides close to the Oval Office ... has been the legal position of the White House for decades ...

Jackson sounded incredulous at this line of argument, noting the difficulty in enforcing it given the number of White House aides who have cycled through the Trump administration. The judge said Trump does not invoke that concern when former White House staff appear on cable news ...

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/31/775266947/judge-pushes-back-on-trump-lawyers-trying-to-block-possible-impeachment-witnesse

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14. Texas voters evenly split on impeachment

BY ROSS RAMSEY
NOV. 1, 2019

... To the question, “Based on what you know, do you think that Donald Trump has taken actions while president that justify his removal from office before the end of his term?” 43% of registered Texas voters say yes and 44% say no. Again, the partisan splits are what you might expect — 79% of Democrats say early removal is justified, while 79% of Republicans say it’s not. Independents were divided, 34% yes, 33% no and 24% unsure ...

Democrats in Congress are more likely to get good marks on the impeachment proceedings than Republican members, but both groups have more detractors than cheerleaders. While 25% of voters approve of the way Republicans are handling the investigations, 49% don’t. For Democrats, it was 40% approval and 45% disapproval. Trump’s numbers are in the same neighborhood: 39% approve of the way he has responded to the impeachment investigations, and 45% do not ...

About as many people approve of the overall job Trump is doing (47%) as disapprove (48%) — numbers that come into sharper focus when you see how others are doing. For Congress, the approval-disapproval ratio is 21% to 58%. Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s is 35% to 50%, and the ratio for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, is 26% to 42%. All of them are further underwater, in terms of public opinion, than the president, who’s floating along with about the same numbers of friends and foes ...

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/11/01/texas-voters-evenly-split-impeachment-donald-trump-uttt-poll-finds/

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15. Inquiry focuses on 2 White House lawyers

ByDEB RIECHMANN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Nov 1, 2019, 9:08 AM ET

The House impeachment inquiry is zeroing in on two White House lawyers privy to a discussion about moving a memo recounting President Donald Trump's phone call with the leader of Ukraine into a highly restricted computer system normally reserved for documents about covert action.

Deepening their reach into the West Wing, impeachment investigators have summoned former national security adviser John Bolton to testify next week. But they also are seeking testimony of two other political appointees — John Eisenberg, the lead lawyer for the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a senior associate counsel to the president ...

The lawyers' role is critical because two witnesses have suggested the NSC legal counsel — when told that Trump asked a foreign leader for domestic political help — took the extraordinary step of shielding access to the transcript not because of its covert nature but rather its potential damage to the Republican president.

Trump has repeatedly stressed that he knew people were listening in on the call, holding that out as proof that he never would have said anything inappropriate. But the subsequent effort to lock down the rough transcript suggests some people in the White House viewed the president's conversation as problematic ...

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/impeachment-inquiry-focuses-white-house-lawyers-66680503