Americans don't want impeachment hearings

Quinnipiac

American voters say 66 - 29 percent that Congress should not begin impeachment of President Trump. Democrats support impeachment 56 - 38 percent. Opposition to impeachment is 95 - 4 percent among Republicans and 70 - 27 percent among independent voters.

Investigating Trump distracts Congress from other national issues, 53 percent of voters say, while 43 percent say Congress can investigate Trump and work on other national issues at the same time.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller conducted a fair investigation, voters say 72 - 18 percent, including 65 - 25 percent among Republicans.

Voters say 51 - 38 percent that the Mueller Report did not clear President Trump of any wrongdoing.

American voters also say 54 - 42 percent that Trump "attempted to derail or obstruct the investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 election."

"No. The Mueller Report did not clear President Trump, American voters say," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

"Yes. The President tried to thwart the investigation.

"But should impeachment proceed?

"The resounding 'no' from voters says Americans want to move on."

I am not particularly certain that Quinnipiac has the pulse of the American public figured out. While I agree that Americans probably want Congress (and the country) to "move on", I also believe that the Country was looking for Mueller to make a determination about Russian election conspiracy, rather than Mueller making a determination about obstruction.

In terms of "high crimes and misdemeanors" it's difficult to downshift from "conspiring with a foreign power" to "attempting to derail an investigation", especially when the investigation did not produce the evidence of any underlying crime. I also believe in this case that the wording of these questions open things up for a number of misleading (if not inaccurate) polling results.

Ironically, the most basic question that I have not seen reported in any of these post Mueller report polls is whether or not the public believes that Trump conspired with the Russians. We get to see a ton of questions that skirts the issue. We get to see direct questions on the issue of obstruction. But why does no pollster so far want to report on the basic question about conspiracy?

"Do you believe that the President conspired with Putin or the Russians during the 2016 election campaign?" - seems like a simple enough question to ask. Why are they not asking it (or at least not reporting it if they did ask).

The reality of this is that most people believed that the President and his team was being investigated for Collusion/Conspiracy/Coordination with the Russians. The fact that none was found is the overriding takeaway from this. While Mueller and his team seem to spend an equal amount of effort writing about the bigger conspiracy and obstruction, in the mind of the county, the issue was more 90/10 or even 95/5 than it was 50/50 (as Mueller made it seem).

I think the idea that Mueller did not reach a definite conclusion is also a factor. Even if it is your opinion that the President committed obstruction, owning that opinion does not necessarily mean you believe he should be impeached or that such an effort would succeed. Much like the prosecutionary decision lies in an ability to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, it's easy to understand that an opinion in this case must be nearly unanimous to get a conviction. You wouldn't demand that someone stand trial for a crime, when you know that a conviction is virtually impossible. Certainly that is the situation we see ourselves in with impeachment. Zero chance that the President would be found guilty and tossed out of office.