By Chris Kahn
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of Americans who believe President Donald Trump should be impeached rose by 8 percentage points over the past week as Democrats began an inquiry into allegations that Trump pressured Ukraine to smear his top Democratic political rival Joe Biden, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday.
The Sept. 26-30 opinion poll found that 45% of adults believe Republican Trump "should be impeached," compared with 37% in a similar poll that ran last week. Another 41% said that Trump should not be impeached and 15% said they "don't know."
Among Democrats, 74% said Trump should be impeached, up 8 points over the past week, while 13% of Republicans supported impeachment, up 3 points. It was unchanged among independents at 37%.
The poll also found that two out of three American adults, including nearly half of Republicans, said any elected official "should be removed" from office if they work with a foreign government to attack a political rival.
