I remember back when Democrats were supposedly making a mistake by impeaching Trump.
That was a mistake. His approval increased several points right after. Had it not been for George Floyd and COVID he'd be sitting at 50% approval.
It did not go up “several points.” Any impact seemed to be extremely minor, to the point it’s hard to even say it was the result of impeachment rather than random noise. The overall trend remained steady. Also most polls showed at least a plurality if not a majority approved of the impeachment. So don’t see how it could have helped him. At worst it canceled out between the people it turned against him and for him, or just had no effect at all.
Also serious (X) to the idea he’d be at 50% approval without these crises. Between impeachment and then, he didn’t get close except the brief and minor rally around the flag effect after the crisis initially broke. He’s simply too polarizing and his approval rating has been too consistent throughout his presidency for anything short of this to have caused a major change for him. And even now we’re seeing more of a slow decline than a rapid descent.
