48 percent of Americans support Trump’s impeachment: Poll

A new opinion poll shows that Americans who support President Donald Trump’s impeachment outnumber those who oppose the move.

The survey released by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling showed that 48 percent of the respondents would support Trump’s impeachment, while only 41 percent would opposed it.

The same polling company reported three months ago that Americans were evenly divided on the issue.

The Tuesday poll was conducted between May 12 and 14, interviewing 692 registered voters with a minus 3.7 percent margin of error.

According to a Gallup survey released a day earlier, Trump’s job approval ratings after more than 100 days in office were the least among four US presidents.

It showed that only 38 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s performance as president, while 57 percent were unhappy with it. Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama had an approval rating of 64 percent at this point in his presidency.

The number stood at 56 percent for his Republican predecessor George W. Bush.

At least 12 congressional democrats have called for Trump’s impeachment since he took office in January.

The results of both surveys were released after Trump’s controversial dismissal of FBI director James Comey, but before reports that Trump shared classified information with Russians.

The combination of Trump firing Comey while his campaign was under FBI investigation for possible collusion with Russia and the president subsequently admitting that he had done so in part because of his frustrations over the Russia investigation was a key factor for Democrats in US Congress to mull removing Trump from office.

“President Trump has committed an act for which he should be charged by the US House of Representatives. The act is the obstruction of a lawful investigation of the president’s campaign ties to Russia influence in his 2016 presidential election,” said Al Green, a Democratic senator from the US state of Texas. “President Trump is not above the law. He has committed an impeachable act and must be charged. To do otherwise would cause some Americans to lose respect for, and obedience to our societal norms. This is not personal, this is constitutional.”

Additionally, US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that Trump’s intelligence sharing with Russians had exposed Americans to a “greater risk,” and the president had to provide Congress with a transcript of his meeting with top Russian officials after he reportedly discussed highly classified information.

“I am calling on the White House to make a transcript of the meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador available to the congressional Intelligence Committees as soon as possible,” Schumer said.

He added that if Trump “has nothing to hide, he should direct that the transcript of the meeting be made available.”

Arguing that the Trump administration is in a “crisis of credibility,” the Senate’s top Democrat stressed that the reporting, if accurate, means Trump “may have badly damaged our national security, nothing less, and in several ways.”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer, however, insisted that Trump’s conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, were not intelligence leaks, but rather they discussed common threats to the two countries.

Spicer declined to comment on the lawmakers’ demand for access to the transcript of Trump’s controversial meeting.