More than 60 percent of Americans in a new poll say it is a serious problem that President Donald Trump asked the leader of Ukraine to investigate 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son. RNA - The ABC News-Ipsos survey, which was released Sunday morning, found that 43 percent of Americans said that Trump's interactions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are a "very serious" problem, while 21 percent described them as "somewhat serious".
Meanwhile, 36 percent of respondents stated that the revelations are not serious.
The response split heavily along partisan lines, with Democrats being far more likely than Republicans to view the interactions as serious. Ninety-one percent of Democratic respondents said Trump's talks with Zelensky are a very serious or somewhat serious problem. Just 32 percent of Republicans said the same.
The latest survey also found that most Americans are unsurprised by the president's move to encourage the leader of a foreign country to investigate a political opponent.
Just 17 percent of respondents said they are surprised to hear Trump called on Zelensky to investigate Biden. Eighty-three percent said they are not surprised.
Trump is facing mounting scrutiny over revelations from a whistleblower complaint about his interactions with Zelensky. The developments led Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to announce a formal impeachment inquiry last week.
The complaint accuses Trump of pressuring Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, over unsubstantiated allegations of corruption.
A White House memo of the leaders' July 25 phone call confirms that Trump repeatedly asked Zelensky to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr to investigate the Bidens.
The latest survey from ABC News did not include a question about Americans' feelings toward impeachment. But other polls have suggested that the public is becoming more open to the process. An NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist survey found that 49 percent of Americans approve impeachment. A recent Hill-HarrisX poll also found that 47 percent of Americans support impeachment.
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