NBC News approached voters in early voting states — Minnesota, New Hampshire, and South Carolina — and asked them about Democrats’ attempt to impeach President Donald Trump with less than a year before the 2020 election.
“People out there don’t talk about impeachment a lot at any events,” National Review Editor Rich Lowry told host Chuck Todd. “It doesn’t come up.”
“We went out and tried to find some voters, guys, to talk about impeachment,” Todd said. “We had to bring it up to them.”
Here’s what the voters told NBC News:
JIM BAIRD (Minnesota): And I think it’s a waste of time and they’re a bunch of little kids fighting and not accomplishing what the hell they’re elected for.
GRAY CHYNOWETH (New Hampshire): And I think we have a system of checks and balances. And the way it should work is that, you know, the House and the Senate should do what is set out in the Constitution.
TRACY VEILLETTE (South Carolina): I read the document and there was absolutely nothing concerning to me from one president to another. It was absolutely appropriate.
Todd, appearing somewhat surprised by what he saw, stated, “these were in the early states.”
WATCH:
VOTERS ON IMPEACHMENT:
“Waste of Time”
“Nothing Concerning” with Ukraine Call
Election Day is in a year.
Keep it up Democrats. pic.twitter.com/oUz6W5cSR1
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) November 3, 2019
A recent Emerson poll found that voters in Iowa, perhaps the most critical state for Democrats in the presidential primary, care very little about impeachment.
“The most important issue for voters in Iowa in deciding for whom to vote for president is the economy at 33%, followed by healthcare at 19%, and social issues at 10%,” the poll found. “Impeachment ranked seven out of nine at 6%, ahead of education at 5% and foreign policy at 3%.”
A separate poll USA TODAY/Suffolk poll from last month found that only “36 percent of respondents support the House voting to remove the president, while 22 percent say Congress should continue with its impeachment inquiry but should not vote to remove him. Further, 37 percent say lawmakers should end their impeachment probe, while four percent remain undecided on the matter,” Breitbart News reported.
The Democrats voted on a resolution supporting their impeachment inquiry after the Trump administration slammed Democrats in a scathing letter late last month and after continued public outcry over the way in which Democrats were proceeding with their inquiry.
The letter, written by White House Counsel Pat. A Cipollone, outlined the following problems with Democrats’ attempts to impeach the president in closed door hearings:
- Your “Inquiry” Is Constitutionally Invalid and Violates Basic Due Process Rights and the Separation of Powers.
- The Invalid “Impeachment Inquiry” Plainly Seeks To Reverse the Election of 2016 and To Influence the Election of 2020.
- There Is No Legitimate Basis for Your “Impeachment Inquiry”; Instead, the Committees’ Actions Raise Serious Questions.
In a statement, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham wrote: “The President has done nothing wrong, and the Democrats know it. For purely political reasons, the Democrats have decided their desire to overturn the outcome of the 2016 election allows them to conduct a so-called impeachment inquiry that ignores the fundamental rights guaranteed to every American. These partisan proceedings are an affront to the Constitution—as they are being held behind closed doors and deny the President the right to call witnesses, to cross-examine witnesses, to have access to evidence, and many other basic rights.”