Welcome to 2020 Vision, the Yahoo News column covering the presidential race. Reminder: There are 122 days until the Iowa caucuses and 396 days until the 2020 presidential election.

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A half-dozen new national polls that show support for the impeachment inquiry into President Trump took a big jump in the past week — even before some of the most significant evidence gathered by House investigators was released to the public.

Even more worrying for the White House, more and more Americans are looking past impeachment (in the House) to the trial in the Senate, and coming down on the side of Trump’s conviction and removal from office.

• A CNN poll found that 47 percent believe Trump “should be impeached and removed from office,” up from 41 percent in May. The survey found that 45 percent disagree, down from 54 percent in the May poll.

• A USA Today/Ipsos poll found 44 percent support Trump’s conviction in the Senate and removal from office, compared with 35 percent who do not.

To put it another way, with impeachment proceedings just getting underway, only 21 percent were undecided, and barely more than a third of respondents came down on the side of keeping Trump in office.

To put it another way, for him to command even a 51-49 majority at the end of the process, the undecideds would have to break more than 3-1 (i.e., 16-5) in his favor.

To put it another way … well, draw your own conclusions. Some Republican senators already have.

The polls were taken after the release of a memo summarizing a phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, the basis for the impeachment inquiry, but before a flurry of related developments that gave added impetus to the probe.

— Jerry Adler

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa (Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images) More

GOP senator grilled about ‘silence’ on impeachment

With impeachment fever gripping Washington, D.C., Republican members of Congress returned to their home districts, where the issue wasn’t at the top of the agenda for many of their constituents.

It was, however, for Amy Haskins, who grilled GOP Sen. Joni Ernst at a town hall in Templeton, Iowa, for not confronting President Trump over his calls for foreign leaders to investigate a political opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son.

“You still stand there silent. And your silence is supporting him in not standing up,” Haskins said to the Iowa senator. “You, yourself, served. You didn’t pledge an oath to the president. You pledged it to our country, you pledged it to our Constitution. When are you guys going to start standing up and actually be there for us?”

Ernst essentially dodged the question.

‘I can say ‘yea, nay, whatever,’” she said. “The president is going to say what the president is going to do. It’s up to us as members of Congress to continue working with our allies, making sure that we remain strong in the face of adversity.”

Later, when pressed by Haskins to condemn Trump’s requests for foreign leaders to investigate his political rivals, Ernst echoed Trump’s claim that he doesn’t care about politics, only corruption.

“I would say to that, corruption no matter where it is should be ferreted out,” Ernst said. “If we have corruption here, it should be ferreted out. If there’s corruption in other countries.”

That is in contrast to a statement by her colleague Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who called Trump’s conduct “wrong and appalling.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders at a campaign event. (AP Photo/Gerardo Bello) More