President Donald Trump faces little chance of being impeached as Berkeley Law’s Henry Hecht, a former Watergate prosecutor, sees it. (Photo courtesy of Creative Commons)
There’s little surprise in the findings of the latest Berkeley IGS Poll from the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley that nearly all registered Democrats in California (93 percent) disapprove of President Trump’s performance, while 73 percent of registered Republicans approve of the job he’s doing.
The poll, conducted in English and Spanish, was taken by cell phone or landline of 1,000 registered voters statewide between Dec. 7 and 16. It showed that the Californians who support Trump’s performance say they do so mainly because they like his policies, while those who do not indicate it’s because they oppose his policies and don’t care for his governing style.
The overall job approval of 30 percent, however, is not the lowest rating ever given to a sitting president by Californians over the last 50 years.
In July 2008, George W. Bush was given a 24 percent approval ranking, as was Richard Nixon in August 1974. It was in August 1974 that Nixon, a native Californian, resigned as he faced almost certain impeachment due to his role in the Watergate scandal.
One notable breakdown of the feelings about Trump can be found in the race/ethnicity of those polled. While 36 percent of white, non-Hispanic voters say they support Trump’s overall job performance, and 32 percent of Asian American voters say they do, support drops to 21 percent among Latinos and slides to a meager 6 percent among African Americans.
Of those surveyed about whether the country is headed in the right direction, 30 percent responded that it is, 64 percent believe it is not and 5 percent said they had no opinion.