Axios-Ipsos poll: Republicans oppose removing Trump over Capitol siege

Eight in 10 Republicans oppose removing President Trump from office for inciting his supporters to storm Congress in an effort to overturn his election loss, according to a new Ipsos poll for Axios.

Why it matters: The stark finding underscores the degree to which the Republican Party has become the party of Trump.

• This helps to explain GOP leaders' resistance to impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment.
• At the same time, the polling suggests near unanimous opposition to protesters' siege and somewhat dampened enthusiasm among Republicans for Trump's refusal to concede.

What they're saying: "This has damaged the standing to continue contesting the election with a big chunk of the public," said pollster Chris Jackson, senior vice president for Ipsos Public Affairs.

• "But what it also tells us is that it doesn't fundamentally change the underlying political dynamics in the country, where Republicans think Trump should stay in office and Democrats do not."
• "For a lot of Americans the political establishment, the media establishment, aren't trusted to do what's necessary, and people sort of feel like there's a need for regular folks to step up."

By the numbers: Just 6% of Americans say they support Wednesday's effort by protesters to forcibly stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's Electoral College win.

• But six in 10 Republicans say if elected leaders don't protect the country, the people must take action themselves.
• 74% of Democrats, but just 22% of Republicans, considered yesterday's events an attempted coup.
• Half the country (86% of Democrats but just 15% of Republicans) says Trump should immediately be removed from office.

Between the lines: The national survey of 536 U.S. adults was conducted Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Ipsos also conducted a snap poll of 500 people earlier in the day, just after the House and Senate chambers were cleared.

• Between the first and second polls, overall support for Trump contesting the election dipped from 34% to 28%, and support for GOP politicians helping Trump to contest it also dropped, from 35% to 29%.
• Among Republican respondents, support for contesting Biden's win dropped from about three in four to about two in three.
• Support for the Capitol police dropped even more precipitously between the two polls, from 59% to 43% — though that was driven largely by Democrats' disapproval.

Methodology: The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults.

• The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.2. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on sub-samples.