I hope some people on this board heard Howard Dean on All In.

[StarfishSaver]

65. You're right that approval for impeachment was about 40% when impeachment "proceedings" started

and later went up to 50%, but that doesn't really tell the story you're trying to tell.

If you're defining "proceedings" as the opening of an impeachment inquiry, you're correct. The house approved the opening of an impeachment inquiry in February 1974 when approval for impeachment was just under 40%. However, by the time hearings began in May, approval had gone up to close to 50%. Only the first 20 minutes of the first hearing was shown publicly and then the judiciary committee closed all hearings to the public until late July. And during that time, it actually dropped quite a bit. But after the Supreme Court ruled against Nixon, By support for impeachment went to over 50%.

So, while your timeline is correct, the causation is not necessarily accurate since the impeachment hearings and other proceedings didn't drive public support for impeachment - that was pushed up by other things, such as the earlier Senate hearings, Nixon's behavior, indictments, the Washington Post coverage, etc. The impeachment proceedings were largely the result of the change in public opinion, not the cause of it.