Rich Lowrey notes that a lot of loose talk of impeachment is going on in liberal Democratic circles. President Donald Trump is not yet six months in office, and the top priority that is on people on the left’s mind is getting rid of him. The idea of impeaching President Trump is problematic at best and potentially disastrous at worse for the Democrats.
Has Trump committed an impeachable offense?
No evidence exist that Trump colluded with the Russians to steal the 2016 election out from under Hillary Clinton. That inconvenient fact has not stopped people from imagining he did.
But making collusion as an article of impeachment would be as mad as trying to oust George W. Bush for blowing up the World Trade Center or Barack Obama for being a native born Kenyan.
Also, Trump did not obstruct justice by firing FBI Director James Comey. The investigation into the Russian matter continues apace and now has its own special counsel.
Could the president be impeached in the future?
Considering how volatile President Trump has proven to be, it is anyone’s guess whether he will commit an impeachable offense or not during his presidency. However, more important, all depends on whether the Democrats recapture the House. If Nancy Pelosi becomes speaker again, the betting is that the liberal base will demand that the first order of business be impeachment.
If Trump has not done anything, the Democrats will have to make something up.
What happens then?
If the Democrats manage to impeach President Trump, the matter goes to a trial in the Senate. The chances that two-thirds of the Senate under any circumstances will vote to remove Trump is somewhere between infinitesimal and nil.
In effect, the Democrats would find themselves in the same position as Republicans did in 1998 when impeachment blew up in the faces of the GOP. Trump’s popularity would soar, and Democrats would find themselves tottering into the political abyss in 2020. It would be a case of being careful what you wish for.
In a fantasy universe, what happens if Trump is removed from office?
Oddly enough, if Trump were to be removed from the presidency, Hillary Clinton would not become president. That honor would go to Vice President Mike Pence. Pence is more articulate than Trump, less mercurial, and more conservative. The backlash against what many Americans would regard as a coup against a duly elected president would help Pence push through the Trump agenda, with certain enhancements, and then win an election in his own right in a landslide. In short, impeaching Trump would be suicidal for anyone proposing it.
