Trump impeachment trial: Polls show slight majority support conviction

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A narrow majority of Americans say they support a Senate conviction of former President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial, which starts Tuesday.

Fifty-two percent of people questioned in a new Gallup poll want Trump convicted, with 45% saying senators should acquit the former president. There was a similar response in an ABC News/IPSOS survey released Sunday, with 56% supporting conviction and 43% backing acquittal.

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Those numbers are in line with two national polls released last week. Half of all Americans wanted Trump convicted and 45% called for acquittal in a Quinnipiac University poll, and a Marist national poll showed  50% supporting conviction and 41% calling for lawmakers to acquit Trump.

The House of Representatives last month impeached the then-president on a charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, were killed during the storming of the building, which came as Congress was certifying President Biden's Electoral College victory over Trump. The impeachment was supported by all 222 Democrats in the chamber as well as by 10 Republicans, with 197 GOP representatives voting against impeachment.

FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo rioters loyal to President Donald Trump try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington. Arguments begin Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump on allegations that he incited the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Tuesday's trial begins with four hours of arguments over whether it's constitutional to impeach a former president. In a recent Senate vote, 45 of the chamber's 50 Republicans voted against holding the trial, saying it was unconstitutional. Only five Senate Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in rejecting the idea that a former president could not be tried on impeachment. That was a major indicator that a conviction of Trump in the Senate trial – which needs 67 votes – would likely fall far short.

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Trump's second impeachment trial – a first in American history – comes a year after his first trial.

"The public is slightly more supportive of convicting Trump now than they were in January 2020 just before his first Senate trial, after he was impeached for withholding congressionally approved foreign aid to Ukraine to secure a political favor and for obstructing Congress in its investigation of the matter," Gallup highlights in its poll. "At that point, 46% said they favored conviction and 51% did not."

The then-president was acquitted in the first trial.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The 56-43% support for conviction over acquittal in the new ABC News/IPSOS poll is also a switch from the 47% support for conviction and 49% support for acquittal in an ABC News/Washington Post survey conducted just ahead of the 2020 trial.

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All of the latest surveys point to a wide partisan divide over the trial.

Eighty-nine percent of Democrats questioned in the Gallup poll support conviction, with 88% of Republicans backing acquittal. Independents by a 54%-43% margin back conviction. It’s a similar story in the ABC News/IPSOS survey, with 92% of Democrats but just 15% of Republicans supporting conviction. Independents by a 54%-45% margin backed conviction over acquittal.

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The Gallup poll was conducted Jan. 21-Feb. 2, with the ABC News/IPSOS survey conducted Feb. 5-6.