'Existential moment': Poll shows nearly half of swing state voters want Trump impeached

A new poll has found that a plurality of voters in swing districts support impeaching President Donald Trump, with 45% saying that they would strongly support removing him from office.

The poll, which was conducted by Lake Research Partners on behalf of progressive advocacy organization Free Speech for People, found that 49% of voters across 17 swing congressional districts supported impeaching Trump, with 44% of voters in those districts opposed.

The intensity of support for impeaching Trump was also notable, as the 45% who strongly supported removing him from office was higher than the total number of people who opposed removing him.

The poll also showed that Trump is broadly unpopular, with just 40% of voters in swing districts approving of the job he’s doing and 56% expressing opposition. Fifty-four percent of respondents in these districts said they strongly opposed Trump—nearly 20 points higher than the 35% of respondents who said they strongly supported him.

John Bonifaz, president and co-counder of Free Speech For People, said that the poll results showed that many Americans understand the grave danger posed by the president to democracy and the rule of law.

“This is an existential moment for our nation and our democracy. We either have a Constitution, or we don’t,” he said. “Donald Trump has already engaged in multiple abuses of power. We demand that our elected officials in Congress carry out the mandate of their oath to protect the Constitution at this critical time by standing up and demanding impeachment proceedings against this lawless president.”

Free Speech for People has been keeping a running tally of what it says are impeachable actions by the president, including deploying the National Guard to carry out law enforcement functions in two American cities; firing a federal prosecutor who said that there was insufficient evidence to support criminal charges against three of the president’s political opponents; encouraging Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr to threaten media companies with the loss of their broadcast licenses; and his use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “violate the rights of American residents and citizens, disrupt our communities, and silence his political opponents.”

Courtney Hostetler, legal director at Free Speech For People, said that all of these actions show “Trump is actively dismantling the public institutions and constitutional protections that safeguard our democracy,” and added that the president’s “assault on the Constitution and the rule of law are purposeful, and they are impeachable.”

Free Speech for People said Wednesday that at least one million people have signed a petition the group helped organize, demanding Trump’s impeachment for “his high crimes against the state.”

Trump was impeached twice in his first presidential term, once for asking the president of Ukraine to investigate his political opponent and once for inciting the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.