Voters appear to give President Trump a slight edge in the war of words over impeachment.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters agree with Trump’s statement in a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives before the vote: “This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat lawmakers unequaled in nearly two-and-a-half centuries of American legislative history.” (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Similarly, 48% agree with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she said, “Our democracy is what is at stake. … The president has engaged in abuse of power, undermining our national security and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections.”

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But nearly as many (46%) disagree with Pelosi, compared to the 40% who disagree with Trump’s statement.

It is important to note that Rasmussen Reports did not identify the source of the statement in either question.

Trump’s job approval has edged up in the latest Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, the first to include a full night of polling following the impeachment vote late Wednesday by House Democrats.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted December 18-19, 2019 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.

In separate surveying earlier this week, 48% of voters favored the impeachment of Trump by the U.S. House of Representatives. Nearly as many (46%) were opposed.

Men and those under 40 are more likely to agree with both statements than women and older voters are.

Whites (44%) are noticeably less likely to agree with Pelosi than blacks (65%) and other minority voters (54%).

Seventy-three percent (73%) of Republicans agree with the president, while 74% of Democrats share Pelosi’s view. But 37% of Democrats agree with Trump versus 22% of GOP voters who agree with Pelosi. Voters not affiliated with either major party rate both statements about the same.

Eighty-two percent (82%) of voters who Strongly Approve of the job Trump is doing agree with his statement. Among voters who Strongly Disapprove of the president’s job performance, 91% agree with Pelosi.

Voters saw little chance that Republicans would jump on the Democrats’ Trump impeachment bandwagon. Most Democrats think that’s because of GOP party loyalty, but then most Republicans believe the impeachment is driven not by broken laws but by Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016.

By a 49% to 45% margin, voters said in early November that the House’s impeachment efforts were unlikely to produce evidence of criminal wrongdoing that leads to the U.S. Senate’s removal of Trump from office.

Voters probably weren’t surprised either by reports of journalists celebrating the impeachment vote. Seventy-six percent (76%) of Republicans – and 53% of all voters - think most reporters are trying to help impeach Trump when they write or talk about the impeachment effort.

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

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