On December 19, 1998, the day House Republicans impeached President Bill Clinton, he recorded his highest-ever score in Gallup’s presidential approval poll: 73 percent favorable. … President Donald Trump and this generation of Republicans plainly are looking to the politics of the Clinton impeachment as a source of comfort. They […] Read more »
Impeachment has stagnated in the polls. That happened with Nixon, too.
This week is arguably the most important to date in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. It’s the first time there will be public testimony, which comes at a time when the American people have become seemingly locked in their impeachment positions: They’re for the inquiry but much less […] Read more »
Poll finds negative views of Democrats’ and Trump’s handling of impeachment inquiry
Congressional Democrats and Republicans each appear to face a challenge moving public opinion on impeachment as public hearings begin, since many Americans say their views are already locked in. There’s been essentially no change in the number who feel President Trump deserves to be impeached since last month, and now […] Read more »
How the decline of public trust shaped Trump’s, Nixon’s and Clinton’s endgames
For more than a century, through world wars and technological revolutions, no American president faced removal from office for betraying the nation’s trust. On Wednesday, for the third time in many Americans’ lifetimes, a president will be pushed onto the very public path that could lead from commander in chief […] Read more »
Can Public Impeachment Hearings Drag Down Trump’s Approval Ratings?
… In the past, congressional hearings have been a powerful weapon. When control of the government is divided between two parties, investigations have been a vehicle for the House majority to publicly and repeatedly hammer the president. And research has found that the cumulative toll of hearings has been effective […] Read more »
Watergate Republicans vs. Trump Republicans
The Republicans of 1973/74 seem like a totally different breed than those we’re saddled with today. We recall them as facing the tribulations of Watergate determined to uncover the truth, whatever the consequences, and relentlessly demanding to know what the president knew and when he knew it, in the famous […] Read more »