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There’s Support for Impeachment, But Most Like Electing A New Congress Better

Critics of President Obama have called for his impeachment and for lawsuits challenging his executive actions, but most voters nix both ideas. Better, they say, to elect an opposition Congress.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 32% of Likely U.S. Voters think President Obama should be impeached and removed from office. Nearly twice as many (58%) disagree and oppose his impeachment. Ten percent (10%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

By comparison, 39% of Americans favored impeaching Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, in July 2007, while 49% were opposed.

Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters believe it would be bad for the United States if some members of Congress seek to impeach Obama, and even more (56%) think it would be bad for the Republican Party if an impeachment effort is made.

Twenty-six percent (26%) say it would be good for the country if some in Congress try to impeach the president, while 13% say it would have no impact. Similarly, 24% feel it would be good for the GOP, but 12% think it would have no impact.

Fifty-five percent (55%) of voters say electing an opposition Congress is the better way for opponents to halt or change the president’s policies. Just 15% think impeachment is the better way for opponents to go, and even fewer (12%) favor lawsuits challenging the president’s actions like the ones House Speaker John Boehner is now championing.

But 61% still agree that people who oppose the president’s policies do so primarily because they believe the policies are bad, not because of racism. However, 28% now believe that opposition is due to racism, up from 18% in October 2011 and 24% in November of last year. Eleven percent (11%) remain undecided.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 11-12, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Opponents claim the president has exceeded legal bounds with some of the executive actions he has taken, and 44% of voters now think the president has been less faithful to the U.S. Constitution than most other presidents. Twenty-two percent (22%) feel Obama has been more faithful to the Constitution than most of his predecessors, while 30% say he has followed the Constitution about the same as other presidents have.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Republicans think the president should be impeached and removed from office. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Democrats and 52% of voters not affiliated with either major party disagree. 

One-in-three Republicans (32%), however, believe it would be bad for their party if some members of Congress seek to impeach Obama, a view shared by 77% of Democrats and 55% of unaffiliated voters.

Fifty-two percent (52%) of GOP voters agree with 53% of Democrats and 60% of unaffiliateds that electing an opposition Congress is the better way to halt or change the president’s policies.

Most voters now expect Republicans to win control of the Senate in the November elections, giving them full control of Congress.

Voters under 40 believe more strongly than their elders that a move to impeach the president would be bad for the country and bad for Republicans.

Seventy percent (70%) of black voters think people who oppose Obama’s policies are chiefly motived by racism. Seventy-one percent (71%) of white voters and other minority voters by a 50% to 42% margin think instead that the opponents genuinely believe the president’s policies are bad.

Favorables for the new national health care law now tie the low for the year first reached in April.

A plurality (46%) of voters believes the Obama administration through its policies and practices has encouraged the flood of young illegal immigrants on the southern border. 

Voters continue to rate the economy as their number one concern, but just 36% give the president good or excellent marks for his handling of the economy. Forty-four percent (44%) rate his performance in this area as poor.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 11-12, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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