This new Washington Post/Schar School poll shows Trump's numbers well into the danger zone. CNN takes a look:
"Right now this poll seems to indicate the president's losing that battle with support for the inquiry up to 58%. That's a 21% jump since July, and among all adults 49% say now when we're in the second inning, as (former Clinton official) Joe Lockhart said before, 49% of Americans say they support removing the president from office today. These are tough numbers for the president, David," John Berman said to David Gregory.
"Yeah, and I think it's a simple combination of bad facts and highly erratic behavior by the president. He's acting in a way where he's both hiding something, he's incensed, he's irrationally attacking people. He doesn't seem to have himself together at all, and he seems to be cornered, and all of that in combination with revelations and the fact that you have not only a whistle-blower, you have additional people coming forward. You have text messages being released. I think the complete picture of a shadow government effort to take down a political opponent is coming into view, and it's easy enough to understand," Gregory said.
"And Abby (Phillips), as we know, often the president doesn't believe polls. The RNC has also said they don't believe polls. Sometimes, I think, from our reporting, they don't even show the president polls. So it's possible that within the White House they won't acknowledge this?" Berman said.
"Yeah, there is a certain cherry picking of numbers that the president and his allies do to give him the rosiest picture of a situation. We reported yesterday that on Capitol Hill, Republicans were telling their members that this could actually be -- impeachment could be a problem for these vulnerable Democrats who are in -- who are still in districts that Trump won in 2016, and that actually may very well be true," Phillips said.
"I mean, I think it's a very important point to distinguish between an overall national picture and a kind of district by district, the kind of brawl that might be going on district by district as we go into the next election where Republicans maybe saying, you know, if you're a Democrat and you're a moderate and you're coming from a district that the president won, you may be in trouble because impeachment may not be all that popular. But if you're in a purple district in, you know, the suburbs of Virginia where Democrats had some of those -- their biggest wins in the midterm elections, impeachment might be something where you have no choice but to go along with what seems to be the trend in public opinion.
"This is what Nancy Pelosi has been telling her members all along. She's been saying, look, we have to wait for the American public to be with us on this, and you know, you can see by the numbers it's a big shift. It's a pretty dramatic shift, and I think it will help her as she tries to make the argument to those Democrats who are on these marginal districts who might be one way or another either risking losing their re-election or risking alienating moderate voters by not going along with this impeachment struggle. It will help her to make the argument to those people that they're doing the right thing."
"And David, I've just been digging in more to these numbers as we're going along here. Let me read you something here, three in ten Republicans support the inquiry, and almost one-fifth of Republicans favor a vote recommending his removal. Among independents, support hits 57%. He's losing among republicans and independents, that's in the poll, and add to that yesterday what we saw from Rob Portman, who you and I both know, this guy is careful."
