U.S. media polarization and the 2020 election: A nation divided

As the U.S. enters a heated 2020 presidential election year, Republicans and Democrats place their trust in two nearly inverse news media environments. Republicans and GOP leaners view many heavily relied on sources as untrustworthy. At the same time, Democrats and Democratic leaners see most of those sources as credible and rely on them to a far greater degree.

• Q&A: How we evaluated Americans' trust in 30 news sources
• Sign up for our 2020 election newsletter

Explore our data: Election News Pathways

Our Election News Pathways project examines how Americans' news habits and attitudes relate to what they hear, perceive and know about the 2020 election. At the project's core is an interactive tool that lets users create custom tables to explore our survey questions directly.

• Analysis: Views about Ukraine-impeachment story connect closely with where Americans get their news

By a narrow margin, Americans say Senate trial should result in Trump's removal

As President Donald Trump's impeachment trial continues in the Senate, 51% of Americans say he should be removed from office, while 46% say he should not. A 63% majority say Trump definitely or probably has done illegal things in office or while running for president. A larger majority (70%) say he definitely or probably has done unethical things.

• Public has little confidence in either party to be fair during trial
• Views of Trump by gender, race, ethnicity, age, education, party and religion 

Try our new email course on the U.S. census

The 2020 census began in Alaska this week. Learn about why and how the U.S. census is conducted through five short lessons delivered to your inbox every other day.

What Americans know about the Holocaust

Most U.S. adults know what the Holocaust was and approximately when it happened, but fewer than half can correctly answer multiple-choice questions about the number of Jews who were murdered or the way Adolf Hitler came to power. The study comes ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27.

Before Soleimani's death, concerns about Iran had fallen in many countries – including the U.S.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated after American airstrikes that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani earlier this month. Our spring 2019 global survey asked about perceptions of Iran as a threat, how other Middle Eastern and North African countries view the country's role in the region and how people around the world view U.S. policy toward Iran.

• Majority of U.S. public says Trump's approach on Iran has raised chances of a major conflict

Partisanship a bigger factor than geography in views of abortion access locally

Partisanship is a more important factor than distance to the nearest abortion provider in shaping peoples' views of whether an abortion should be harder or easier to obtain locally, according to a new analysis of survey data.

• Do state laws on abortion reflect public opinion?
• 5 facts about the abortion debate in America
• U.S. public continues to favor legal abortion, oppose overturning Roe v. Wade

Four-in-ten U.S. drug arrests in 2018 were for marijuana offenses – mostly possession

Liberals make up the largest share of Democratic voters, but their growth has slowed in recent years