Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley predicted that support for President Donald Trump will sink as impeachment proceedings advance.
Brinkley was asked about a CNN poll released last week that found 50% want Trump impeached and removed from office, versus 43% opposed.
“It just tells you what deep trouble Donald Trump’s in,” he said on the network on Friday. “I mean when you have 50% of the country wanting you not just impeached but removed from office, and the game hasn’t even gotten fast yet.”
Brinkley, a CNN contributor, predicted:
Once the vote’s taken by Congress to impeach him and he’s wearing the ‘I’ on his chest, you’re going to see that movement grow even more. It tells you he doesn’t have a lot of friends. He’s a base politician. He doesn’t know how to turn this around.
He said Trump’s polling numbers are far worse than those of President Richard M. Nixon and President Bill Clinton when they were facing impeachment.
He also noted that a potential impeachment trial in the Senate will happen in the heat of the 2020 presidential campaign.
“The Democrats are going to pound Trump on being kind of a fake president, somebody who’s subpar in his behavior, has been running the most corrupt administration since Warren Harding,” he said.
However, the polls are not necessarily in alignment with Brinkley.
One released by Quinnipiac University last week found impeachment hearings so far have shifted sentiment slightly in Trump’s favor, with 45% wanting him impeached and removed versus 48% who don’t. In October, those numbers were almost reversed, with 48% in favor of impeachment and removal versus 46% opposed.
Overall, however, multiple pollsters have found support for impeaching Trump has remained stable since the hearings began.