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Majority of Americans want Trump removed from office after Capitol insurrection, poll finds

An overwhelming number of Democrats support the president being removed from office

Gino Spocchia
Sunday 10 January 2021 20:22 GMT
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Arnold Schwarzenegger says Trump will go down in history as the 'worst president ever'

A majority of Americans say Donald Trump should be removed as president after he incited a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol this past week, according to a new poll.

The ABC News/Ipsos poll, released on Sunday, found that more than half (56 per cent) of those polled said Mr Trump should be removed from office with almost all Democratic participants saying so (94 per cent).

A majority of independents (58 per cent) also backed removing him.

Among Republicans polled, only 13 per cent said the president should vacate the White House. 

The polling comes amid widespread anger at Wednesday’s riots, where the president’s supporters scaled walls, smashed windows and ran riot through the US Capitol building as lawmakers were in the process of certifying president-elect Joe Biden’s win. Mr Trump told crowds on Wednesday to march on Congress with “strength”.

Some Republican senators have suggested the president should resign as he had committed impeachable acts.

More than two-thirds (67 per cent) told pollsters that Mr Trump was to blame by a “great deal” or “good amount” for the chaos with almost all Democrats agreeing (98 percent).

Among Republicans, 69 per cent disagreed and said Mr Trump was not to blame.

Those divisions were also apparent when respondents were asked whether or not they trusted Mr Biden to protect democracy.

Democrats said by 94 per cent that they trusted Mr Biden while only 14 per cent of Republicans said the same.

Still, the president-elect polled better than Mr Trump on the same question.  Only 30 per cent of Republicans said they trusted the president to defend democracy.

The poll was carried out on 8 January and 9 January among a random national sample of 570 adults. 

Mr Trump, in a video released on Thursday, appeared to concede the election to Mr Biden for the first time and said he would not attend his successor’s inauguration on 20 January. 

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