Members of the Democratic Party in the US Congress are seeking to Impeach President Donald Trump for the wrong reasons and risk boosting the Republicans in the 2020 elections if they launch impeachment proceedings, an American author and radio host says.
“There are plenty of reasons to impeach Trump but they want to after him for the wrong reasons, the things like collusion with Russia, which never happened,” Stephen Lendman told Press TV on Monday.
“If they impeach Trump for these reasons, they will lose, and if they lose, they’ll get a black eye and they’ll be defeated, they’ll end up worse in 2020, with Trump being re-elected, may be Republicans gaining control of both houses [of Congress], not just one,” Lendman said.
Support is rising among US voters for Trump’s impeachment by Congress and removing him from office, a new survey shows.
The CNN poll conducted by SSRS shows that 41 percent of Americans support impeaching the Republican president, up from 37 percent last month.
The shift on impeachment is mostly the result of growing support for it among Democratic Party voters; 76 percent favor it currently, up from 69 percent in April.
Calls for impeachment have intensified following a press conference on Wednesday in which former US Special Counsel Robert Mueller undermined Trump and his allies’ claims of exoneration over alleged election collusion with Russia and Trump’s obstruction of justice during the Russia probe.
Under the US Constitution, the president and vice president can be removed from office for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” without being more specific.
Only two US presidents have ever been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868 in the tumultuous aftermath of the American Civil War; and Bill Clinton in 1998 over issues including his relationship with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. Both times, the House approved formal charges, only to have the Senate fail to convict and remove.
There currently are 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans and three vacancies in the House of Representatives. As a result, the Democratic majority could vote to impeach Trump without any Republican votes. In 1998, when Republicans controlled the House, the chamber voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.
In the Senate, there are currently 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually align with Democrats. With conviction and removal of a president requiring 67 votes, that means at least 20 Republican senators would have to vote against Trump if all the Democrats and the two independents remained unified in order to remove him from office.