House Democrat now thinks there are going to be enough Republican votes to take Donald Trump down
Today we saw Republican Senator Mitt Romney, Republican Senator Ben Sasse, and Republican Congressman Will Hurd publicly condemn Donald Trump for his China scandal, after Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst publicly sided with the Ukraine whistleblower over Trump earlier this week. But are these scattered GOP defections really adding up to anything?
Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin, who has been playing a central role in the House impeachment inquiry, appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews on Friday night to discuss where things are heading. Raskin was asked about the Republicans who have publicly come out against Donald Trump in recent days. He responded by saying that there are “significant defections” at play behind the scenes, and that he thinks plenty of House and Senate Republicans will end up voting to take Trump down.
It’s important to keep in mind that of the two U.S. Presidents who were impeached, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson, neither were removed. The only U.S. President who has been removed, Richard Nixon, was never technically impeached. Instead, as it became clear that there were going to be enough votes within his own party to remove him, Nixon had no choice left but to resign on the best terms that he could.
The question now is whether Donald Trump still has enough marbles in his head to figure out that he needs to cut a resignation plea deal now while he still can, or whether he’s going to drag this out as long as possible. The longer he does drag it out, the less leverage he’ll have, and the more prison time he’ll end up with as part of any resignation deal.
