(Bloomberg) -- Almost two in three Americans see Donald Trump’s move to ask a foreign leader to investigate one of the president’s political rivals as a serious problem, but most said they weren’t surprised, an ABC News/Ipsos poll shows.
A separate CBS News poll released Sunday also showed that 55% of Americans -- and an overwhelming number of Democrats - say they approve of Congress opening an impeachment inquiry, but there’s a split on whether his actions were illegal and he should be impeached.
In the ABC/News Ipsos poll, taken Friday and Saturday, Americans were asked about the phone call in July with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump urged the new Ukrainian president to probe former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
Some 64% termed Trump’s actions “very serious” or “somewhat serious.” Still, only about one in four said they were following the news of Trump’s call very closely -- and most of those were Democrats.
Overall, 17% said they were “very surprised” or “somewhat surprised” by Trump’s actions, against 83% who were “not so surprised” or “not surprised at all.”
The ABC poll was conducted among 504 adults. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.
The CBS News survey showed that 31% of Americans said Trump’s handling of matters with Ukraine may have been improper but were still legal, while 28% -- including most Republicans -- said the president acted properly. Another 41%, including most Democrats, think he has acted illegally, the poll found.
Asked whether Trump deserves to be impeached, 42% said he does, 36% said he doesn’t, and 22% said it’s too soon to say, according to the poll. It was conducted by YouGov of 2,059 U.S. residents interviewed Sept. 26-27, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
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