In the wake of a Fox News poll approving impeachment, some in Compton and Inglewood say not so fast.
It’s unusually warm in Willowbrook, on a recent October afternoon, as the toasty Santa Ana winds have led to wearing shorts, skirts and buying iced beverages.
Across the country in Washington D.C., the president of the United States is feeling a different type of heat.
Earlier in the morning, the president’s preferred TV network, Fox News, published a poll that showed that record numbers of Americans want Donald Trump impeached and removed from office. The conservative outlet also showed that his approval rating among voters continues to sink and that his administration is seen as more corrupt than previous ones.
At the root of the negativity is the basis of the current impeachment inquiry where Trump is accused of repeatedly urging his Ukrainian counterpart to look into former Vice President Joe Biden, a man who could be his opponent in 2020.
The Fox News poll asked voters if it was appropriate to ask foreign leaders to investigate rivals and two-thirds of the respondents said “no.”
Trump fired back with a pair of tweets. After falsely claiming that he has never had a positive result from a Fox News Poll, he wrote, “Whoever their Pollster is, they suck.” And then, followed it up by trashing the sole network that he and his current and former staff regularly appear on, concluding, “Oh well, I’m the President!“
Back in Willowbrook, a South L.A. neighborhood located between Compton and Watts, we asked residents what they thought of the Fox News poll and the impeachment inquiry.
Synee Jackson, 21, was walking her two sisters home from school when they stopped at a Taco Bell for a snack. When asked about the impeachment, she said she feared Trump’s successor more than him.
“I feel like we should stick it out, even though he’s a bad president,” the Compton native says, holding a half-finished burrito. “His vice president is worse than him. Honestly, I’m not for Republicans anyway because they don’t care about the whole economy. They just care about themselves. The rich don’t even need help, Democrats do.”
“Amen,” Jennifer Thomas yells, overhearing the conversation. “He needs to get the hell out.”
Thomas, also from Compton, was filled with energy as she listed her reasons. “He ain’t doing shit but fucking with the Mexican people,” she says. “Those are little kids, they’re not grown, and he has them in cages … he needs to take his racist ass back to New York.”
Charlie Williams, a security guard from Compton agreed with Jackson that impeachment was not the right move.
“As far as I’m concerned, I think the man has done a pretty good job,” Williams says, supporting the administration’s hard stance on immigration. “I have rules that I have to follow and I think everybody else should too.”
Williams, however, is torn in regards to migrant families being separated from their children. “Even though you’re trying to find a better life for them, I think there are other ways,” he says, adding that he agrees with Trump’s tariffs too.
The soft-spoken senior citizen said he typically keeps these opinions to himself because he doesn’t like to upset his girlfriend.
A Lyft driver who refused to give her name said she would probably give Trump four stars, not five. Although she thinks he has been good for small businesses and agrees with his decision to “get our boys out of Syria,” she too has doubts about Trump’s replacement if he is removed.
“Pence would become the president,” she says. “If you think Donald Trump is really strict and so far-right-wing and so conservative, Pence is 100 times more. He’s a bible thumper. He’s so serious I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on his face.”
The woman, whose daughter lives nearby, says she thinks the reasons behind the impeachment are baseless, and Trump will probably just get a slap on the wrist.
“It’s like this new Gen-X, Millennial Age that we’re in. ‘I don’t like the color of your shirt, you’re going to jail,'” she says.
Someone who was clear about her political beliefs in Inglewood was a woman named J.C. who sported a purse with an image of Barack and Michelle Obama.
J.C. supports the impeachment. “To me he’s a joke,” she says, walking into a store. “He’s the President of Twitter. If you got time to do all that, you ain’t got time to run the country.”
When asked about the allegation that Trump sought help from a foreign leader to get dirt on the Bidens, J.C. replied, “he needs to clean up his own dirt. That’s how I feel about that.”
Inglewood resident Justice Davis had just purchased a large toy set for his two-year-old daughter. As they walked to their car he said because Trump only has one year left it’s okay with him if nothing happens. “But if he gets impeached, that’s better,” he says.
“No one should be in office and sit there and use those benefits to break laws and get away with it,” Davis says.