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1. A short thread on some interesting findings from @QuinnipiacPoll today. They say Americans support Congress investigating Cohen's claims, 58-35, and oppose impeaching Trump, 59-35. poll.qu.edu/national/relea…
@QuinnipiacPoll 2. From February 1-4, 1974, the Gallup Organization asked, “Do you think President Nixon should be impeached and compelled to leave the presidency, or not?” Americans opposed the move, 51-38.
3. On February 6, 1974, the House voted to empower the Judiciary Committee "to conduct an investigation of whether sufficient grounds exist to impeach Richard M. Nixon."
4. By the next Gallup poll, conducted April 12-15, public opinion had flipped. Was there “enough evidence of possible wrongdoing in the case of President Nixon to bring him to trial before the Senate, or not?” The public said yes, 52 to 33 percent.
5. This sequence of events is widely misremembered today. First, the House moved forward with an impeachment investigation. Only after it had done so did public opinion swing to support that move, which had been broadly opposed before it acted.
6. Chronology is not causation, and impeachment is far too grave a proceeding to hinge on public opinion. But that’s precisely the point. It didn’t in 1974, and it shouldn’t today, either: theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
