Support for Impeachment Has Nearly Doubled Among Independents

A slim majority of Americans want to impeach, censure, or investigate the president.

Patrick Semansky/AP

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A small majority of Americans are now in favor of impeaching President Donald Trump, censuring him, or continuing investigations into his actions, according to a new poll. And among key group, political independents, support for impeachment has nearly doubled in the past month.

In April, when asked what Congress should do with the findings of the Mueller report, only 14 percent of independents believed that legislators should begin the impeachment process. But the latest Marist/NPR/PBS News Hour poll shows that 23 percent of independent voters support impeaching the president.

The shift in opinion came after Robert Mueller made a rare public statement about his findings in the inquiry into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. Since the investigation began and even after the Mueller report was finally released, Trump has been claiming exoneration. But in his statement to the press, Mueller reiterated that if he had been confident the president did not commit a crime, the report would have made that explicit.  

“Case is closed!” Trump tweeted after Mueller’s press conference last month. But to the 52 percent of Americans who now support impeachment, censure, or continued investigations, the case is anything but. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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