Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony last week did little to change the opinions of nearly half of Americans regarding the impeachment of President Trump, according to a poll released Sunday.
The ABC/Ipsos poll found 47 percent of Americans who had read, saw or heard about Mueller’s testimony saying the former FBI chief’s appearance in Congress made no difference to their support or opposition to impeachment.
{mosads}Twenty-seven percent of that group said the testimony made them more likely to support impeachment, while 26 percent said it made them less likely to.
The increase and decreases in support broke almost entirely along party lines.
An overwhelming majority of respondents to the survey, 71 percent, said that they had either read, seen or heard about Mueller’s testimony before two House committees.
Mueller’s testimony stuck closely to the content of his 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The investigation did not find sufficient evidence to prove conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia during the election, and it neither implicated nor cleared Trump on the question of obstruction of justice.
Trump touted the hearings as a success, declaring the “phony cloud” cast by the investigation had been lifted and insisted “there was no defense to this ridiculous hoax, this witch hunt.”
However, since the testimony 11 lawmakers have moved to begin supporting an impeachment inquiry, meaning that nearly half of House Democrats support the process.
Democratic leadership has called for restraint on impeachment, instead asking the caucus to focus on investigations and oversight.
Ipsos conducted the survey of 577 adults between July 25 and 26. The margin of error for the sample is 4.5 points.