MSNBC's Morning Joe explains how Republicans botched Trump’s impeachment defense from Day One

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said the polling after the first week of public impeachment hearings offered bad news to President Donald Trump.

About 58 percent of Americans are following the hearings very closely or somewhat closely, and 60 percent of those people believe Trump should be impeached and removed from office, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.

Nearly one in three Americans have already made up their minds on impeachment, but about 30 percent say they could be swayed by new revelations about Trump's scheme to pressure Ukraine into announcing an investigation of Joe Biden.

"You know, if Republicans have been smart from the very beginning -- of course, that's a big if -- they would have just jumped to the end saying, 'Yeah, it's really bad what he did, really bad, but it's not an impeachable offense,'" Scarborough said.

But the "Morning Joe" host said GOP lawmakers had instead adopted a defense strategy that changes day by day.

"We've gotten to the point where there is that drip, drip, drip, day in and day out, where Republicans set up a straw man, it gets knocked down the next day," Scarborough said. "They set up another straw man, knocked down the next day. Americans have been seeing this over the past month now, and it's having a real impact in the president's approving ratings."