New polls find McConnell’s sham impeachment trial of Trump didn’t fool the American public

By a 15-point margin Americans say that, despite being acquitted in the Senate, Donald Trump has not been cleared of wrongdoing in the Ukraine matter. Fully 55% say Trump has not been exonerated by his acquittal while 40% believe he has, according a new Quinnipiac poll released Monday. The views of independents track almost perfectly with those findings, with 54% saying Trump has not been cleared and 40% saying he has.

What this means more broadly is that Americans weren’t fooled by Republicans’ sham trial one bit. In the poll, 51% still believe that Trump’s actions were serious enough to warrant impeachment, while 46% believe they didn’t reach the threshold. Independents are split on that question 49% to 49%. Perhaps even more telling are respondents’ views on whether the Senate trial was conducted fairly:

• Unfairly: 59%
• Fairly: 35%

That finding is almost identical to Monmouth polling also released today, showing 58% say the trial was unfair, while 35% say it was fair. In effect, Senate Republicans’ sham trial only inspired confidence in GOP voters, 54% of whom called it fair, while Democrats (78%-18%) and independents (56%-39%) overwhelmingly found it unfair. View the post here.