美国国家公共电台 NPR Poll: Independents Move In Favor Of Impeachment Inquiry; GOP Stays Firmly Against

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

A slim majority of Americans now favor the impeachment¹ inquiry² into President Trump³. That is the finding of a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, but an even bigger percentage say they think the president's future should be decided⁴ at the ballot⁵ box rather than through the impeachment process. NPR's senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro is here to talk us through these results.

Hey there, Domenico.

DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE⁶: Hey there. Thanks for having me.

KELLY: Glad to have you here. So a majority now is in favor of the impeachment inquiry. What are the numbers, and how have they changed since the last poll?

MONTANARO: So it's a slight uptick from the last poll a couple of weeks ago. Now 52% of people are saying that they're in favor of the inquiry. Forty-three percent are against it. That's a change from what was 49% approve to 46% disapprove⁷. Largely, that's because of Independents. They've completely flipped⁸. They went from 44% in favor and 50% against to now 54% approving and 41% against. That's a complete reversal, a net 19-point swing.

Now, when it comes to simply asking if people support impeaching⁹ Trump or removing him from office, people are more split kind of down the middle, so there's some convincing that Democrats¹⁰ really still need to do to sway those few persuadable people who are out there. But like other polls that have been out this week, support for what Democrats are doing is moving in their direction.

KELLY: Let me follow up on that phrase you just used - few persuadable people...

MONTANARO: Right.

KELLY: ...Who could be won over. That suggests plenty of people have made up their minds where they sit on this.

MONTANARO: Absolutely. I mean, polarization is alive and well. Nine in 10 Democrats say that they're in favor of the inquiry. Nine in 10 Republicans say that they're against it. In fact, two-thirds of Republicans say that they would vote against their own member of Congress if they voted for impeachment of Trump. That's pretty different of an atmosphere than we had in Washington 20 years ago when Bill Clinton was impeached¹¹ because back then in 1998, when Clinton was impeached, a majority said that members of Congress shared their moral values and shared the moral values of the rest of the country. Now it's the opposite. A majority say that they think that a majority of Congress does not share their moral values. That helps explain why people have been so immovable. As one of our pollsters said, people are being guided by whose side they think they are on.

KELLY: That is depressing. Another thing to ask you about - the argument that the president has been making, which is that moving forward with impeachment would represent overturning the democratic will of the voters who put him in the White House in 2016 - did our poll look at that?

MONTANARO: Yeah, and I expect he's going to continue to make that argument, especially after seeing these numbers because it's one of the more fascinating things our poll found. Even though people are moving in the direction of supporting the inquiry, almost six in 10 said that they'd rather see Trump's fate decided at the ballot box rather than by impeachment.

Now, that really does reflect the caution and reticence¹² that a lot of Americans have had about going through with impeachment. It's part of why you saw Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, kind of try to hold back the progressives at the gate, but here we are. And, you know, Democrats who have been around a while say that they think that this is politically risky¹³, needs to be handled in a way that keeps that majority that's now in favor of the inquiry on board.

KELLY: All right. So let's take these findings and look ahead. Who does this slight shift help? Who does it hurt?

MONTANARO: Well, people are pretty split in our poll on who they think it helps. Forty-four percent said Democrats. Forty-three percent said Trump. That's frankly¹⁴ the base of both parties, so no one really knows. One person they think that this is hurting is Joe Biden, who'd been leading in the polls on the Democratic side until this controversy¹⁵. Half of people say they think it will hurt him, while a little over a quarter think it will help, and that's because President Trump has included him in this controversy, trying to deflect¹⁶ about his son being on the board of a gas company in Ukraine.

KELLY: NPR's Domenico Montanaro, thank you.

MONTANARO: You're welcome.

1 impeachment   

n.弹劾；控告；怀疑

参考例句：

• Impeachment is considered a drastic measure in the United States.在美国，弹劾被视为一种非常激烈的措施。
• The verdict resulting from his impeachment destroyed his political career.他遭弹劾后得到的判决毁了他的政治生涯。

2 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 disapprove   

v.不赞成，不同意，不批准

参考例句：

• I quite disapprove of his behaviour.我很不赞同他的行为。
• She wants to train for the theatre but her parents disapprove.她想训练自己做戏剧演员，但她的父母不赞成。

8 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

9 impeaching   

v.控告（某人）犯罪( impeach的现在分词 )；弹劾；对（某事物）怀疑；提出异议

参考例句：

10 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 impeached   

v.控告（某人）犯罪( impeach的过去式和过去分词 )；弹劾；对（某事物）怀疑；提出异议

参考例句：

• Elected officials can be impeached. 经过选举产生的官员可以被弹劾。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The judge was impeached for taking a bribe. 这个法官被检举接受贿赂。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 reticence   

n.沉默，含蓄

参考例句：

• He breaks out of his normal reticence and tells me the whole story.他打破了平时一贯沈默寡言的习惯，把事情原原本本都告诉了我。
• He always displays a certain reticence in discussing personal matters.他在谈论个人问题时总显得有些保留。

13 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

14 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

15 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

16 deflect   

v.(使)偏斜，(使)偏离，(使)转向

参考例句：

• Never let a little problem deflect you.决不要因一点小问题就半途而废。
• They decided to deflect from the original plan.他们决定改变原计划。