Is covering up an affair any different than lying about a blowjob?

CNN Poll: Fewer support impeaching Trump

Americans break against that idea, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. Half, 50%, say they don't feel that Trump ought to be impeached and removed from office, while 43% say he should be. Support for impeachment has dipped some since September, when 47% favored it, and is about the same as in a June poll (42% favored it then). Support for impeachment of Trump remains higher than it was for each of the last three presidents at any time it was asked. It's on par with President Richard Nixon, who 43% of Americans said should be impeached and removed from office in a March 1974 Harris poll.

The shift on impeachment comes mostly from political independents. In September, they were evenly split on the question, with 48% behind impeachment and 47% opposed. Now, 36% favor impeachment and 55% are opposed.

There's also been a meaningful shift on the question among younger adults (53% of those under age 45 backed impeachment in September, now that's down to 45%) and racial and ethnic minorities (66% favored it in September, 50% do now).

Trump haters who believed that they had found the smoking gun in the so called "unindicted co-conspirator" angle regarding the "campaign finance violations" are probably disappointed to know that the public isn't following along.

As strange as it might sound, people believe that Mueller and his investigation was supposed to be about Russia, election hacking, and possible collusion. The further this whole thing gets from that core goal, the harder it will be to convince conservatives and independents that the President did something impeachable.

The reality is that the Stormy Daniels issue became an issue in October of 2016 when it was first reported that there was supposedly an affair between the two. Trump obviously denied the relationship. While the public likely didn't believe him, they also didn't seem to care.  So despite allegations of affairs, statements about pussy grabbing, and other questionable sexual behavior, Trump was still elected President.

This reminds me a little of the Clinton impeachment situation. While Republicans wanted to argue that Clinton had committed perjury and obstruction of Justice, the general public oddly gave the behavior a pass because the impropriety was about covering up a sex scandal. It wasn't about the actual crimes of perjury or obstruction, it was that Clinton "lied about a blow job". I believe that most every American could understand how any married person might lie about infidelity, even to authorities.

Likewise, the Democrats will try to make the same sort of "legal argument" about campaign finance laws, when the public generally sees this as a married person trying to cover up his infidelity. Whether or not he technically "broke the law" (which he didn't)  is still going to be overshadowed by the feeling that this is about judging Trump for having affairs. With Presidential campaign spending literally entering into the billion dollar range, most people will have issues accepting that a $130,000 payment is worthy of this sort of attention.

• Clinton lied about a blow job. 
• Trump covered up an affair with a porn star.

As long as the general public finds these behaviors to be somewhat expected, if not justifiable, there will be hesitation to push for an impeachment. To really garner across the board support the public needs to hear evidence that Trump actually colluded with the Russians, or committed some sort of election "fraud". Short of that, I believe that support for impeachment will eventually wallow down to just the hardcore Democrats.