It's week two of Adam Schiff's public impeachment inquiry hearings and according to a new poll, witnesses aren't convincing the American public the exercise is necessary.
From POLITICO/Morning Consult:
According to the latest POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, voter support for the impeachment investigation inched down 2 percentage points -- to 48 percent from 50 percent -- while opposition ticked up 3 percentage points -- to 45 percent. The probe is backed by 83 percent of Democrats and opposed by 83 percent of Republicans. Forty percent of independent voters support the inquiry. Nearly half of voters support the House (48% - 44%) and Senate (47% - 44%) impeaching and convicting the president. The poll was conducted November 15-17, after the first round of public impeachment hearings.
"Voter opposition to the impeachment inquiry is at its highest point since Morning Consult and POLITICO began tracking the issue," said Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult's vice president. "A key driver for this shift appears to be independents. Today, 47 percent of independents oppose the impeachment inquiry, compared to 37 percent who said the same one week ago."
Television ratings also tell the story, with more people tuning in to watch former FBI Director James Comey testify than impeachment inquiry witnesses.
"Though the major broadcast networks known as 'The Big Three' and their cable news counterparts all aired the hearings live, they received significantly fewer views than other major recent congressional hearings," Business Insider reports. "In comparison, testimony from former FBI Director James Comey in June 2017 received 19.6 million live TV viewers."
Further, last week's second day of hearings had a million fewer viewers than the first day.
Viewership fell by more than 1 million for Friday's televised impeachment hearings on Capitol Hill compared to the first day of public testimony.
Nielsen Media Research data showed 12.7 million people tuning in to the second day of the impeachment hearings across ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.
Schiff is holding three full days of hearings this week.