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After the release of the Mueller report, 7 in 10 Democrats say the findings should lead to impeachment hearings in Congress against President Trump. In contrast, 91% of Republicans think it should not lead to such hearings. Pete Marovich/Getty Images hide caption

After the release of the Mueller report, 7 in 10 Democrats say the findings should lead to impeachment hearings in Congress against President Trump. In contrast, 91% of Republicans think it should not lead to such hearings.

Most Democrats want impeachment hearings to begin now that special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted findings are public, but that idea is still unpopular overall, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.

The results come as national Democratic Party leaders and 2020 presidential candidates are grappling with how to approach an issue that could ignite base voters but alienate a section of more moderate America.

"There's a political risk in talking about moving ahead with impeachment proceedings," says Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll. "There's not a huge appetite for that going forward."

The poll shows how Americans are split down partisan lines on a number of issues related to the investigation into Russian election interference, a divide that is sure to be on display Wednesday, when Attorney General William Barr answers questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Overall, a majority of Americans think Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference was fair, but about half also say it will not be an important factor in how they vote in the next presidential race.

How to proceed after Mueller

Seven in 10 Democrats want Congress to begin impeachment hearings based on the findings in Mueller's report, but just 39% of Americans overall think impeachment hearings are the correct next step.

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That has put Democratic leadership, especially in the House of Representatives, on a "tight rope" says Miringoff.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has steered away from calling for impeachment, instead calling for further investigation, an idea that has broader support.

Overall, 48% of Americans think Democrats in Congress should continue investigating Russian election interference, compared with 46% who think the investigations should end.

Americans by and large have also been unimpressed by Congress' efforts to combat Russian interference efforts since the 2016 election. Only 19% of Americans think Congress has done a "great deal" or a "good amount" to ensure there isn't interference in the 2020 election.

Mueller (still) seen as fair

Despite attacks on Robert Mueller's credibility from the White House for well over a year, a majority of Americans still feel that his investigation was fair.

That was fueled by Democrats in part, explains Miringoff, but was actually anchored by voters who identified as independents. More than two-thirds of independents, 70%, said Mueller's investigation was fair.

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Republicans were split on the fairness question, with 47% calling it unfair and 42% calling it fair. That is surprising, Miringoff said, considering President Trump's efforts to paint the investigation as a "witch hunt" and a "hoax."

"Republicans were not jumping on board the Trump bandwagon on that," said Miringoff.

Overall, the public perception of Mueller's investigation has grown more positive over the past year. In July 2018, just 46% of Americans said they thought the investigation was fair, compared with the 57% who said the same in Wednesday's poll. In March, shortly after Barr released what he described as the "principal conclusions" of Mueller's findings, 56% likewise said the investigation was fair.

Trump "not in good standing" based on approval

Miringoff said there are a number of aspects of the poll results that Trump may find troubling in looking ahead to 2020, beyond his 41% approval rating.

"Riding his strong base alone won't get him a second term," Miringoff said. "He needs a far greater number of independents than he is currently getting."

Almost two-thirds of those independents feel as though "questions still exist" related to Trump's actions in connection to Russia's interference leading up to 2016.

Overall nearly 6 in 10 Americans think the same, compared with 33% of Americans who feel as though the special counsel report cleared the president.

Mueller's investigation did not establish conspiracy between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to interfere in the election. While the report does not conclude that Trump obstructed justice, it also "does not exonerate" him.

While most Americans believe there are outstanding questions, it is unclear how much that will matter in November 2020.

In fact, 53% of registered voters said the findings in Mueller's report will not be an important factor in deciding who they will vote for in the next presidential race.

Don't see the graphic above? Click here.

The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll was conducted April 24-29, surveyed 1,017 adults and has a margin of error of +/- 3.7 percentage points. There were 840 registered voters surveyed. Where they are referenced, there is a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percentage points.

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Stacey Abrams, a rising star in the party after nearly winning the Georgia governors race last year, passed on a Senate run Tuesday despite a sustained and public recruitment. | John Amis/AP File Photo

Campaigns

The party is still looking for credible candidates in a handful of races needed to win back control of the chamber next year.

By JAMES ARKIN and BURGESS EVERETT

04/30/2019 07:14 PM EDT

Senate Democrats' bid to take back the majority is running into a big roadblock: Some of their most coveted recruiting targets are refusing to run.

After straining to defend seats in bright-red states in 2018, Democrats are focused on picking off Republicans to claim the Senate majority in 2020. But, so far, a number of the partys high-profile recruits have said no to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the partys campaign arm.

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Stacey Abrams, a rising star in the party after nearly winning the Georgia governors race last year, passed on a Senate run Tuesday despite a sustained and public recruitment that included multiple meetings with Schumer. Hours later, Rep. Cindy Axne, who flipped a swing district last year, confirmed she was running for the House again and not challenging Iowa's first-term Republican senator, Joni Ernst.

Democrats havent struck out everywhere: Former astronaut Mark Kelly in Arizona was a huge get in a critical battleground state. But three Democrats in other key states have passed on Senate bids to run for president despite the crowded field, and the party has missed out on its top recruits in Georgia and North Carolina.

The Senate is not an appealing place for smart, talented candidates because its a broken institution. And Democrats have not yet offered a vision for how to fix it, aside from wringing their hands and wishing things were different, said Adam Jentleson, a longtime aide to former Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Whats the pitch? 'Come here, do nothing and let Mitch McConnell eat your lunch every day?'

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, denied she and Schumer had blown it. Democrats need to flip only a handful of seats, and they'll be in a position to get them, she said.

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We dont need all of these states to take back the majority. We just need three or four. And were going to do really well, Cortez Masto said. Just because we dont get somebody that youre aware of doesnt mean were not going to have somebody that can beat those Republican incumbents.

Schumer declined to say whether Abrams decision was a personal rejection of him but said the party will find a strong candidate to take on freshman Sen. David Perdue.

Were going to win in Georgia. And we have lots of good candidates in many different states, including Georgia, Schumer said.

Interviews with nearly a dozen Democratic senators and strategists revealed little overt concern about the status of the Senate map. It's early in the cycle, they said, and the party has promising prospects in battleground races who havent announced yet. Sens. Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the two Democrats who flipped seats last cycle, announced in July and September of the year before the election, respectively.

But privately, some Democrats are alarmed by the lack of candidates.

We really need to get some good recruits as quickly as possible, one Democratic strategist who is a veteran of Senate races said, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to be candid. The strategist expressed optimism about the national political environment, adding: We just need enough candidates to ride the wave if it comes.

The party's path to the majority is narrow. Democrats have to win a net three seats to flip the Senate if they win the presidency and four if they dont. Only two incumbent Republicans are running in states Hillary Clinton carried in 2016, and Democrats are defending two seats in states President Donald Trump won, including in solidly Republican Alabama. That means Democrats will have to win multiple races in red states to win the chamber.

Some Democrats are concerned that the party's focus on its upcoming presidential nominating process is distracting from the groundwork needed for its Senate efforts.

I worry a little bit that the activists and donors and regular Democrats across the country haven't quite internalized the importance of taking back the Senate, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said. But theres a fair amount of time to make that argument.

Republicans have jumped at criticizing Democrats for the missed recruits and are optimistic about keeping their majority.

Look at the map. Look at the states that Democrats were hoping to contest, including the states that have sort of been Republican-leaning. They havent gotten their top tier candidates, Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said. And it all starts with good candidates if they have any hope of winning in some of these places.

Democrats counter that Republicans havent had recruiting success either: They have yet to lock down candidates in Michigan and New Hampshire to challenge Democratic incumbents and could face competitive primaries in Kansas and Alabama that could complicate races in red states. But those factors alone are unlikely to cost the GOP its majority.

Democratic senators also said they would soon have recruits to announce that would rebut the GOPs narrative. And they said some of the Democrats who have passed on Senate races to run for other offices, including the presidency, could change their minds and transform the landscape. That list includes former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. Hickenlooper and O'Rourke spurned calls to run for Senate to seek the presidency, and Bullock appears likely to enter the presidential race soon instead of challenging GOP Sen. Steve Daines.

Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, a former DSCC chair, said "it's early enough" in the cycle that if their presidential bids flame out, "then some of them may opt in to an opportunity for the Senate.

In Georgia, Democrats turned to other options after Abrams passed. Teresa Tomlinson, the former mayor of Columbus, plans to run, and Sarah Riggs Amico, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2018 alongside Abrams, is considering a campaign. She said in a statement Tuesday that dysfunction paralyzing Washington is actively harming Georgia workers and families, and we cant allow it to go unchallenged.

Perdue said he's still preparing for a competitive election, even without Abrams' star power in the race.

"We're going to run against somebody from the Democratic side that's going to be well-funded, and they're going to espouse these radical, social agenda that they're trying to perpetrate right now," he said. "So Im geared up."

Axnes decision to pass on the Iowa Senate race was viewed by Democrats as much less significant. Axne didnt publicly express interest in the Senate despite meeting with party leaders to discuss it and few Democrats in Iowa or Washington expected her to run. Others are considering runs, including Theresa Greenfield, a businesswoman who grew up on a farm in the state, and J.D. Scholten, a former professional baseball player who narrowly lost to Rep. Steve King last year. Some Democrats view both as better recruits.

And Democrats have had other successes. In Texas, MJ Hegar, an Air Force veteran who narrowly lost a House race in 2018, is running against Sen. John Cornyn, though she could face a primary against Rep. Joaqun Castro, who is expected to decide this week whether to run.

In North Carolina, state Attorney General Josh Stein was seen as a top-tier recruit, but passed early on challenging GOP Sen. Thom Tillis. Democrats are still searching for a candidate, but several state legislators and former elected officials are seen as potential recruits.

Democrats acknowledge Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will be difficult to beat but argue she is more vulnerable than ever. Theyve yet to land a candidate in the race, but state House Speaker Sara Gideon and former state House Speaker Hannah Pingree are considered strong options. And there is a pot of nearly $4 million raised by activists after Collins voted last year to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court waiting for the Democratic nominee.

In the past four years, Democrats have struck out with boldface names in high-profile races: Russ Feingold in Wisconsin, Phil Bredesen in Tennessee and Ted Strickland in Ohio. Some Democrats argue that the over-reliance on those types of candidates should come to an end.

We sometimes are way too obsessive about getting big-big-name recruits," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said. "Our big-name recruits in previous cycles havent done so hot.

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The original plan was also one that everyone rejected from the beginning Mr. Trump even criticized public-private partnerships, which were key to the plans financing and no new plan has been put forward since.

But Democrats went to the White House for a meeting, intent to play along as if there was a chance.

Ms. Pelosi requested the meeting with Mr. Trump, in part to change the conversation from impeachment to infrastructure and to demonstrate that Democrats want to proceed with a policy agenda, and not merely with investigations of the president.

For Mr. Trump, an infrastructure deal would provide him with a bipartisan achievement he could point to while campaigning.

Democrats arrived on Tuesday with a dozen-member delegation of lawmakers. Mr. Trump was accompanied by Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary, as well as seven White House aides, including his daughter Ivanka Trump, who is also a presidential adviser; Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council; and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel.

I would like to do something, Mr. Trump told the group, according to a Democratic aide. It may not be typically Republican. The president made it clear that he had never supported the public-private partnership model to fund a bill that his aides, like Gary D. Cohn, his former top economic adviser, had pitched. That was a Gary bill, he said of his earlier attempt at an infrastructure bill. That bill was so stupid.

Meetings between the president and the two Democratic leaders have often taken a surprising turn.

Mr. Trump has conducted supposedly closed-door sessions on live television, or shuttled his guests to the Situation Room for maximum privacy. They, in turn, have surprised him by getting out their versions of what happened as soon as they got to the driveway in front of the White House, where reporters are usually waiting.

In September 2017, for instance, after Mr. Schumer and Ms. Pelosi joined the president for in-house Chinese food, they announced that Mr. Trump had agreed to work on an immigration deal, including protections for thousands of young immigrants from deportation. Mr. Trump was later forced to backtrack from that position.

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But just as liberals are invoking the founding fathers to press for impeachment, more moderate Democrats, whose districts will most likely control who is in the majority after next years elections, are doing the same to urge caution.

I believe, ultimately, what the founders created for us in our democracy is clear: When you disagree with someones approach or believe he or she is abusing the Constitution, you vote them out, said Representative Josh Gottheimer, a centrist Democrat from New Jersey. You could impeach them, if it merits it, or you can beat them with better ideas and a better approach.

The founders left the definition of high crimes and misdemeanors the criteria for impeachment, along with more specific offenses like treason and bribery open to interpretation. And the report from Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, did not provide clear guidance.

The challenge is that the Mueller investigation did a data dump onto the American public and Congress, and the data dump suggests obstruction of justice, which would satisfy the requirement of high crimes and misdemeanors, said Timothy Naftali, a New York University historian and an author of the recent book Impeachment: An American History. But the prosecutors didnt say it, and the Justice Department isnt saying it. And so its up to Congress to decide.

Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, a freshman Democrat from Pennsylvania, has been thrown back to her days as a teenager watching the Watergate hearings and the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon unfold. She said she wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about the Mueller report.

If were just looking at the facts, then we have the same facts that led to the impeachment of Richard Nixon in terms of obstruction of justice, misleading the public, hiding evidence and suggesting the creation of false evidence, said Ms. Scanlon, the vice chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee.

But, she added, there is also a political calculation. What are the politics of initiating an impeachment if the Republican-led majority in the Senate doesnt believe that this type of conduct warrants impeachment?

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Divided on Impeaching Trump, Democrats Wrestle With Duty and ...

If anybody thinks Bernie Sanders is incapable of doing politics, they havent seen him in Congress for 30 years, said Tad Devine, Mr. Sanderss longtime strategist, who is not working for his campaign this year. The guy is trying to win this time.

But such outreach matters little to many Democrats, especially donors and party officials, who are growing more alarmed about Mr. Sanderss candidacy.

Mr. Brock, who supported Mrs. Clintons past presidential bids, said the Bernie question comes up in every fund-raising meeting I do. Steven Rattner, a major Democratic Party donor, said the topic was discussed endlessly in his orbit, and among Democratic leaders it was becoming hard to block out.

It has gone from being a low hum to a rumble, said Susan Swecker, the chairwoman of Virginias Democratic Party.

Howard Wolfson, who spent months immersed in Democratic polling and focus groups on behalf of former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, had a blunt message for Sanders skeptics: People underestimate the possibility of him becoming the nominee at their own peril.

The discussion about Mr. Sanders has to date been largely confined to private settings because like establishment Republicans in 2016 Democrats are uneasy about elevating him or alienating his supporters.

The matter of What To Do About Bernie and the larger imperative of party unity has, for example, hovered over a series of previously undisclosed Democratic dinners in New York and Washington organized by the longtime party financier Bernard Schwartz. The gatherings have included scores from the moderate or center-left wing of the party, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California; Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader; former Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., himself a presidential candidate; and the president of the Center for American Progress, Neera Tanden.

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Stop Sanders Democrats Are Agonizing Over His Momentum