Roughly a third of American voters believe President Obama should be impeached, according to a new CNN/ORC International poll released Friday morning. However, a majority of nearly two-thirds, 65 percent, still believe that Obama has not gone too far in expanding the powers of presidency.
Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer told reporters at a Friday breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor that it's possible that Obama could be impeached by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. "Impeachment is a very serious thing that has been bandied about by the recent Republican vice presidential nominee and various others in a very un-serious way," he said, referring to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. "It would be foolish to say Republicans would not consider going down that path."
According to the poll, support for impeachment cuts down party lines, with 57 percent of Republicans favoring the idea but only 35 percent of independents and 13 percent of Democrats backing a move to impeach Obama, New York Daily News reported.
The solid majority of Americans who oppose impeaching the president is similar to previous years, CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "Anti-impeachment sentiment is roughly where it was for past presidents - 67 percent opposed Bill Clinton's impeachment in September 1998, and 69 percent opposed impeaching George W. Bush when a few Democrats began talking about it in 2006," said Holland. "One reason may be that Americans take impeachment very seriously. Only about one in five say that impeachment is a valid response if Congress is dissatisfied with a president's policies or the way he is handling his job. Nearly eight in 10 say impeachment should be reserved for high crimes and misdemeanors," Holland added.
The poll's release came one day after the House Rules Committee approved a resolution authorizing Speaker John Boehner's lawsuit against the President over part of his signature health care law, Time reported. Calls for Obama's impeachment started this summer after Sarah Palin wrote an editorial on Breitbart.com, entitled "It's Time to Impeach President Obama," where she accused Obama of intentionally weakening the border security between the United States and Mexico, declaring it grounds for impeachment proceedings to begin.
But other Republicans, while critical of the President, have tried to tone down her 'I-word' demands. "I've met Sarah Palin a few times, I like her, I think she's entitled to her opinion - say whatever she wants to say. My view would be, at this point, pushing for impeachment isn't productive," former Vice President Dick Cheney told CNN. "I'm not prepared, at this point, to call for the impeachment of the president. I think he is the worst president of my lifetime... but I think that gets to be a bit of a distraction just like the impeachment of Bill Clinton did," he added.
Boehner (R-Ohio) has also said he disagrees with Palin's impeachment talk, according to CNN.
The poll was conducted for CNN by ORC International from July 18-20, with 1,012 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.
