538 has a new poll:
[I]n our latest survey, we did see that among people who’ve responded to all five waves of our survey, there’s been an ever-so-slight (but statistically significant) uptick in the share of respondents who think Trump committed an impeachable offense (from 55 percent in November to 58 percent now). ..
But Fox is getting the job done with Republicans:
We also found that Republicans in our panel are increasingly supportive of Trump and skeptical of key elements of the Democrats’ case against him. For example, the share of Republicans who strongly approve of the way Trump is handling the impeachment process has risen since November, from 27 percent to 36 percent. And a smaller share of Republicans now say that it would be inappropriate to withhold military aid from Ukraine while demanding an investigation into the Bidens, or for Trump to cover up his actions relating to Ukraine — signaling that Republicans may increasingly be on Trump’s side.
As in our previous survey, we found that a majority (59 percent) of Americans still support hearing new witnesses and testimony, while 37 percent want to keep the focus solely on the evidence introduced in the House hearings. But although the top line number hasn’t really shifted, Democrats and Republicans have become much more polarized over the past couple of weeks on this issue. In late December, 65 percent of Democrats and 48 percent of Republicans supported bringing in new witnesses. But now the share of Democrats who want new witnesses has risen to 74 percent, while the share of Republicans who say the same has fallen to 41 percent.
I’m not surprised. Fox and talk radio are pounding the message that there should be no new witnesses like a drum. Republicans will rally around this I’m sure. And as we’ve seen, if they’re watching their favorite network, they aren’t hearing the evidence either.
The GOP is a huge problem and I don’t even want to think about what all this says about their voters. It’s too depressing to contemplate. But the central problem in all of this the right-wing propaganda machine. People used to think it was dedicated to the ideology of the conservative movement. But Trump has exploded that myth. It is solely dedicated to maintaining political power. Its agenda is no different than it ever was in some respects. It cares about protecting wealthy plutocrats from all government interference and any attempts at redistribution for the common good.
Its paeans to freedom, liberty, the constitution, “the shining city on a hill” or whatever were all bullshit. They believe in nothing. And they have trained their blind followers over many years to believe in nothing except what they tell them to believe in. Right now it’s Donald Trump. Tomorrow, who knows?
By the way, 58% is an interesting number:
Take a look at those numbers for Nixon just before he resigned. Look familiar?
People keep saying that Nixon should have destroyed the tapes and he could have survived. That’s probably true. The difference now is that the Republicans would back him even if they heard the tapes. They’d say it was fine and that all president do it and that it’s a witch hunt and hoax. And they’d complain and whine about the process and tell their followers that they should ignore all that “fruit of the poisoned tree.”
If Trump tapes like Nixon’s were revealed tomorrow, they would sound much like his twitter feed. And the stuff we didn’t already know would be much like the stuff we’re reading in the news and all these books which prove he is an unfit, corrupt, unpatriotic moron who has no business being anywhere near the White House. And his people would love him for it.