Amid continued political debate and strife, the word “impeachment” continues to be floated. And while it’s unclear if that will ever be a realistic prospect, there’s apparently growing support for it among the American public.
According to a new PRRI poll conducted earlier this month, 40 percent of Americans now support impeaching President Donald Trump. That’s a 10 percentage point increase from February — a pretty stunning uptick.
Meanwhile, 53 percent of the public reject impeachment, a proportion that is down from 65 percent in February.
But here’s where things get pretty interesting. White evangelical protestants — a group that has been credited for helping Trump secure the White House — is among the most averse groups to impeachment.
“Nearly eight in ten (79 percent) white evangelical protestants say Trump should not be impeached,” PRRI reported. “More than six in ten white mainline Protestants (63 percent) and white Catholics (61 percent) also oppose impeaching the president.”
Politically, it’s no surprise that Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to support impeachment, with this dynamic leading to the overarching increase in American support for the measure.
While 72 percent of Democrats support impeachment, just 7 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of Independents agree.
The poll also measured whether Americans believe that Russia interfered with the 2016 election, finding that 48 percent believe the Russians did interfere, with 43 percent disagreeing and 9 percent declining to decide.
As Christianity Today noted, many evangelicals have been overjoyed by Trump’s Supreme Court pick and some of his pro-life moves, though there have been disagreements over refugees, his overarching tone and other issues.
Read the complete results here.