A plurality of Americans believe Trump should be impeached and removed from office

Americans by a 45%-38% plurality now support a vote by the House of Representatives to impeach President Donald Trump, a USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds, as allegations continue to swirl around an embattled White House.

By a similar margin, 44%-35%, those surveyed say the Senate, which would then be charged with holding a trial of the president, should convict Trump and remove him from office.

The survey of 1,006 adults, taken Tuesday and Wednesday, underscores the perilous situation the president finds himself in as House committees subpoena documents and prepare to hear testimony into accusations that he pressured the leader of Ukraine to investigate a political rival, then tried to hide the account of their phone conversation.

Trump, who has released a rough transcript of his July 25 call with the president of Ukraine, says the conversation was "perfect" and that there was no wrongdoing. On Tuesday, he lashed out during a White House news conference, referring to the inquiry as a "hoax."

Ben Reilly wrote:Whether the public is generally ignorant or not hardly matters when it comes to questions of whether their government's leader is engaged in corruption.

Indeed, a major reason for having a republic over direct democracy is so that average citizens don't have to be political experts. A vote is like choosing a mechanic -- we might not know how they fix cars, we just pick somebody who seems to know how to fix them.