c-span ipsos paul shows just over half of americans are confident that the 2020 presidential election will be open and fair. there is a significant partisan gap on the question. 72% of republicans are confident in the system. only 39% of democrats sure that belief. 64% of americans think foreign governments are a threat to the system. while 41% of republicans share that concern, more than of half democrats and independents believe that foreign governments may interfere with u.s. elections. 31% of people believe the federal government has done enough to protect elections from foreign interference. 54% of republicans report having either a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in federal efforts. only 16% of democrats and one -- just over a quarter of independence agree. you can find all the results, including whether americans think presidential candidates should be required to release

their tax returns and whether citizens should be required to show a government id to vote at c-span.org. >> coming up in just a few minutes, we will go live to the white house for a news conference on u.s. migrant detention policy. we would hear from the acting director of u.s. immigration and customs enforcement, matt albans. coverage is set to begin live at eastern,11:00 only on c-span. >> good morning. the actual chair would be distressed to learn that i had staged a coup. [laughter] >> when it comes to public sentiment, particularly on impeachment, what does history teach us? >> my two touchstones in the modern era are 1974, the nixon

impeachment, and 1998/1999, the clinton impeachment. and in the case of richard nixon, sentiment started off very low, below 20% support for and removing the president from office, and it rose slowly but steadily through the last half of 1973, the first half of 1974 -- it did not go above 50% until close to the very end. , by contrast, support for bill clinton, his job approval was in the 60's, support for impeaching and removing him was very low and it never got higher , and i think what happened in , reflectsflected those differences in public opinion. host: meaning what? guest: by the time richard nixon was facing the famous republican delegation led by very goldwater, not only had support in the senate collapsed for him, but support among the american people was clearly collapsing as

well. there was never such a moment and as aclinton, result of which not a single democratic senator broke ranks when the impeachment articles came across from the house to the senate, and it had the optics of a purely partisan exercise that was a total failure for republicans, both subsequently and politically -- both substantively and politically. host: asking people about impeachment even this warning. -- morning. fox news poll, most of those recording support for impeachment of the president. the washington post had a similar poll from earlier this week. how much attention should we be paying to the polls at this point? guest: they are good snapshots of public sentiment right now. trend linen is the and not the snapshot right now. not thetime and

snapshot right now. we also have to look at the way the questions are worded, because some of the surveys ask about an impeachment inquiry and others talk about impeaching him in the house and removing him in the senate. there is more support for the inquiry then there is for specific outcomes of the inquiry. host: so for those paying attention, how does the factor of how the president's day during this process and how democrats behaved during this process factor into public opinion and sentiment? guest: the behavior of the president and the people close to him, on the one hand, and democrats on the other late 80's. -- on the other hand will make a difference. question mark is how much of a difference this will make in our divided and polarized times. are there a number of republicans that are wavering in their support for the president and who could be persuaded to jump ship by the accumulating

weight of evidence? we don't know the answer to that question, and some people president's the rocksolid support is as high as 40% or even 45%, and that all the change that is going to occur has already occurred for the republicans. who believe the dam is breaking, the actual floor of his support is closer to 30%. a lot of it depends on which of these analyses turn out to be yet. we don't know that host: bill nelson is our guest galston is our guest. if you want to ask him questions, (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. independents, (202) 748-8002. look outor people to for, the president's job approval is first on the list. can you expand upon that? guest: sure.

the president's job approval pretty is a reliable indicator to the number of people that are liable to stick with him. one thing that struck me about the survey research so far shows the president's job approval numbers have barely budged in the past two weeks. they started off in the low to mid 40's and they are still in the low to mid 40's. if i really squeeze the data, a point or two it is nothing like the bottom dropping out. tend to map numbers bond -- map on votes chairs in general elections. host: we kinda talked about support for impeachment and self , but you added bipartisan support factor in. that is important. sentimentrepublican

does not shift -- grassroot sentiment -- then it is unlikely that lots of republican senators are going to decide to desert the president and more unlikely that republican house members are going to desert the president. 1974, six out of 17 republicans on the house judiciary committee voted for the first article. seven of the 17 voted for the second. those were tough votes, but they took them. that was an indicator of rising bipartisan support for impeaching and removing the president. i think it is important to look carefully -- if it comes to a house vote on articles of impeachment, will any republicans of the house break ranks? if so, how many? susan collins, ben sasse met mitt romney expressing concerns. is that a sign?

many republicans in the senate, but what about that? collinsf i were susan running for reelection in a hotly contested race, i would certainly be expressing concern. there are a few republicans voting -- running for reelection in tough states. colorado is at the top of the list. i would expect them to try to steer a middle course as long as they can. express concern, give the impression, i hope it is a valid impression of being fair-minded. and then hold their fire as long as they can. fromld expect republicans bright red states, republican senators, not to do anything of the sort.

if even one of them shows signs of breaking ranks, that would be an important signal. host: we have calls lined up here at our first one is from steve. steve joins us from norfolk, virginia. republican line. good morning. calling -- myjust opinion on all of this is the has not done anything incorrectly or wrong. witchhunts of those that -- we are trying to protect obama and biden because the truth about everything comes out. we are going to find out that obama was incompetent, or that he knew about everything. i think we are looking at the wrong direction. i think the president has the right to investigate and look into things. we are trying to figure out what

really is going on in our federal government and why we are spending millions of dollars -- basically wasting them. host: -- guest: there are a lot of people who agree with you. points i am making is that as the events unfold, people who are concerned about the weight of the evidence will have more to work with. ordinary citizens are going to be bombarded with the flow of information. from traditional media, social media. want all sides of the story to come out are likely to get their way -- for better or worse. host: cocoa, florida.