Podhoretz: If Dems win 10-seat House majority, they “will impeach” Trump
“table is being set pretty nicely” for Dems to win House majority in 2018
Forget about Nancy Pelosi. The true leader of House Democrats is . . . Maxine Waters.
On today’s Morning Joe, Commentary editor John Podhoretz flatly predicted that if in 2018 the Democrats win a 10-seat majority in the House, they “will impeach” President Trump.
Moreover, Podhoretz said that “the table is being set pretty nicely” for Dems to retake the House majority.
Note: After impeachment by the House, a two-thirds majority in the Senate would be required to actually remove President Trump from office. Podhoretz wasn’t predicting that: “I’m not saying he’s going to be convicted and thrown out of office.” Listen carefully to the clip and you’ll hear Scarborough murmur “oh, he will be impeached.”
Questions:
- What do readers think of Podhoretz’s confident prediction that Dems “will impeach” Trump if they gain a 10-seat House majority?
- What would be the political ramifications if Trump were to be impeached but not removed from office? In that precise predicament, Bill Clinton soldiered on and left office with high approval ratings. Then again, he didn’t have to face re-election after impeachment, since it occurred after he had already won a second term.
- If Trump were impeached before 2020, would he seek re-election? Might he resign and let Mike Pence become President? If he didn’t step aside, he would almost surely face multiple primary challengers. Could we witness the spectacle of a President being primaried by his own Vice-President?
Note: this morning marked the first time in the memory of this long-time Morning Joe watcher that two actual conservatives appeared simultaneously on the panel. In addition to Podhoretz, Lanhee Chen of the Hoover Institute was also on the panel.
Readers might have their beefs with one or both, but the pair are knowledgeable, thoughtful conservatives. A refreshing change from typical MJ “conservatives” like Elise Jordan, or before her, Nicolle Wallace.
JOHN PODHORETZ: Democrats need 24 House seats to take the House back in 2018. The table is being set pretty nicely for them to get that number. And if they get that number, or ten more than that number, he’s going to get impeached! I’m not saying he’s going to be convicted and thrown out of office. I’m saying that the House will impeach him if Democrats have a 10-seat majority. And if he doesn’t right the ship, he’s writing his own, he’s Clinton in 1998 and 1999, with no recovery possible.
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Comments
Don’t let this BS fool you: the GOP establishment is trying to threaten Trump supporters into voting for them. Blackmail is how they keep getting re-elected. The old good cop/bad cop routine.
Let’s not forget Paul Ryan on his “Build the Wall” Dude Ranch ride. Good cowboy and bad hombres!
Right Matt.
Everyone remember, this is exactly what psychopaths do –
Lie about Everything.
All they do is lie lie lie.
In real world news:
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice To Announce Party Switch to Republican During Trump Rally…
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/08/03/west-virginia-governor-jim-justice-to-announce-party-switch-to-republican-during-trump-rally/
It’s true that the GOP would like to run on this… but that doesn’t mean the Dems wouldn’t do it.
1. I think if they get a one-seat majority they will impeach him. Ten seats, no problem.
2. He would brazen it out just like Clinton, portraying the impeachment as a badge of honor and proof of martyrdom. He’d organize rallies all over the country. The senate would acquit him, and he would brandish that acquittal (even if it’s by a minority) as a full vindication.
3. While I personally would love to have President Pence, I don’t see Trump resigning, and I think in such a circumstance he’d crush all primary opponents; a vote against Trump would be portrayed as a vote for Pelosi & Schumer and the other Dems, and no Republican would want to be seen supporting them.
I like Pence and all but oh no, I prefer Trump even over Pence.
My problem with a lot of NeverTrumpers is they make no secret that they want this to happen.
I am not necessarily saying that about Podhoretz.
Impeach on what basis though? Just because? There was way way more to impeach Bill Clinton on and look how that ended up turning out. They think if they impeach, they will absolutely win the WH in 2020. I am not sure that is the case.
They won’t need a basis. A “high crime or misdemeanor” is whatever Congress says it is.
Democrats will just lie about a reason. The real reason is that they can and want to impeach.
I don’t think the Senate would vote to remove president Trump but with ‘Republicans’ like McCain, Collins, Murkowski, and McConnell who can tell for certain?
I believe that if the Senate were to remove Trump for anything we have learned about in the last year (in other words, nothing) then it would be pitchfork and torches time in DC.
And in their home districts. The amount of quarter will be miniscule.
McCain won’t be an issue by then
Impeach him for what exactly? Having the temerity to win the election???
Yep, and then rocking the boat. They’re all getting fat and rich in DC and they’ll stop at nothing to destroy anyone who threatens to end the fun.
Meuller can go before a D.C. Grand Jury and tell them anything is a crime. He is investigating the sale of a property to a Russian Oligarch in 2008. What is there to investigate? Trump buys an estate and flips it for a profit. That’s Trump’s business. Trump sells lots of condominiums to Russians is that a crime? Meuller subpoenaed the records of all Trumps property sales. Meuller can say Trump’s high profits on the sales of properties to Russians proves a relationship between Trump and Russia. Meuller can show Trump made higher profits from Russians than Americans. That Russia was actually bribing him to be on their side if he became President. Why else would Meuller want the records of all Trump’s property sales? It sounds crazy, but is it more crazy than this investigation in search of a crime?
By the way, the “can’t fire Mueller” bill Congress is debating seems to me exactly the same as the supposed “law” Andrew Johnson was impeached for violating, which unconstitutionally purported to forbid him from firing his cabinet secretaries without congressional approval.
Talk about wasting congressional and legislative time, not to mention tax payer’s time.
Time for citizens to sue congress critters out of their world.
The “Tenure of Office Act” had not been determined to be unconstitutional at the time Johnson tried to fire Secretary of War Stanton. Though it was later, of course.
Declared or not, it was unconstitutional. But that didn’t mean the impeachment was invalid; grounds for impeachment don’t have to be illegal, and Congress can still impeach a president for violating that non-law if it likes.
Just another example of: “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Sir Winston Churchill. The legislative brach is overpopulated by a bunch of illiterates.
That photo of Podhoretz almost has him looking like Andrew Sullivan back in his “Excitable” days.
Podhoretz is a rabid NeverTrumper, formerly lucid on occasions. Now …never
I don’t see any way the dems will retake the House. The party is out of ideas and out of money.
don’t underestimate the Dems. They have far too many football players masquerading as cheerleaders.
23 of 33 senate seats in the 2018 election are held by Dems with two more (Sanders and King) independents who caucus with the Dems.
The only thing dumber and unwilling to learn from the election then the democrats is the GOPe.
Anything less then the next 6+ years with Trump as president will be a disaster for the GOP.
I have no doubt that the dems will impeach Trump if they take the house, but I also have no doubt that Trump will survive. If anything it will make him stronger.
As this point given the behavior of the dems, if they produced a video of Trump shooting someone on fifth avenue, then a majority of the US population would figure that it was a video faked by the dems.
I also don’t see any evidence that the House is likely to change hands and if there is such evidence I wish someone would point it out.
Has anyone actually seen Trump’s birth certificate? Is NY really American? They sure don’t look like it from fly over country.
How we know he’s not Obama in clever disguise?
Yes, many people have seen Trump’s birth certificate.
I am not so sure the Dems will post any gains next year.
It might be deja-vue all over again, with a lot of Rinos getting tossed in the primaries, and the challengers taking their seats in the house.
The likelihood for that to happen increases every time the Rinos
waylay Trump’s agenda.
Case in point: The president’s immigration proposal meets with overwhelming approval in the swing states. Yet, congressional opposition is already busy trying to shoot it down. Wanna bet the Rinos among that fine group of gentlemen will face stiff primaries next year?
If that happens, the Dems can kiss their impeachment fantasies goodbye.
YEah.. there totes won’t be ANY consequences if Trump is impeached. 64 Million “woke” folks will just say… oh well.. shoulda voted for Jeb!
Nah. Times are different. These idiots on the coasts have NO IDEA what they are flirting with.
Why would Dems think it would be in their political interest to make Pence president?
because the.media would lead him around by his nose.
Podhoretz is not a Conservative, he is a mafia member unhappy he is no longer getting his slice of the crime syndicate that is the D.C. swamp.
IF the “Democrat-Democrats” make any major gains, you can be sure that the “Republican-Democrats” who are a major chunk of the Republican party will join with any impeachment attempt. If only to try to show the peasants who is boss.
If only to try to show the peasants who is boss.
They are so off the charts angry at the voters, it’s becoming rather disturbing. The Beltway R’s are used to telling us how we must vote and what me must accept. After all, what was our alternative? Now they actually have to justify their existence to the voters and they are pissed.
The feelings are completely mutual but the inside the beltway snakes have not figured it out yet, they are notoriously slow learners.
People like Podhoretz and McCain hate Trump so much they would gladly be destroyed just so he fails.
There is only one problem with this scenario and that is that the Senate must vote 2/3 for conviction and that will never happen. And on top of that, I do not believe the Dims will retake the House. Look at the dimwits they throw at the voters. The only negative thing that this “Threat” will bring is the help it will have for the RINOs up for re-election. They will run on the “Stop Trump’s Impeachment” platform and that will keep the primaring of the RINOs to a minimum.
The GOPe would love fot the democrats to take the house. then they’d have an excuse for doing nothing – but taking money.
Rats, almost.all of them.
What could they impeach him for lol?
hope the Dems keep up charade.Ikshow Reps keep the majority and grow the Senate
So, losing recent elections and having a Democrat governor switch parties yesterday, is that part of the “table-setting” he is speaking of?
In fact, Trump’s best strategy now is to turn Democrats, since the RINOs dug themselves in on healthcare. And, as we learned, Trump can get Democrats to support him (unlike all the other Republican candidates).
Podhoretz is a long time Never Trumper. Take his prediction with a grain of salt, since it is what he probably wants to see.
All of which proves that Dems have NO interest in the Republic. They want Autharitarian Tyrany.
Clinton was impeached, but not convicted, for lying to Congress and the people – very publicly, NOT for his sexual indiscretions.
Nixon was impeached and resigned for minor crimes by underlings which he had no direct knowledge of at the time of occurance, but attempted to cover up after the fact (shades of Obama! Except that Obama DID know of underling MAJOR crimes)
Nixon was not impeached. (He would have been, had he not resigned.) And no, he was not going to be impeached for other people’s offenses; the articles being considered by the house were all for his own offenses, most of which there’s no question that he did knowingly commit.
Incumbent congressman get re-elected 98% of the time. Did you look at the red on the electoral map by county? The only thing republican congressmen have to fear is a primary for not supporting Trump. Democrats have their havens in the northeast on on the coasts, 14 governors last I checked. They will suffer more losses in 2018 because Trump will campaign against them.
Well, heck, if I knew you could impeach the President on the grounds that we don’t like him we could’ve impeached Obama back in 2010.
Yes, you knew it very well. Don’t lie and pretend you didn’t. And sure, the House could easily have impeached 0bama any time it liked, but it would have been a ****ing stupid move, which is why it didn’t do so. Only a complete idiot would have supported impeaching him, knowing that he was absolutely guaranteed to be acquitted in the senate, and to hold that acquittal up as a vindication. Did you learn nothing from the Clinton experience? Impeaching 0bama would have guaranteed a Democratic sweep at the next election.
There are a lot of Republicans that hate Trump. Just look how the Senate voted not to allow Trump to make recess appointments. With the dems slow walking his picks you would think his own party wouldn’t stab him in the back. I started out as not a big fan of Trump, but his treatment by the media and the power elites have pushed me to totally support him. l saw Lindsay Graham on Fox News being interviewed. The interviewer asked all softball questions and never broached how Meuller’s appointment is not in compliance with the law. She did all she could to make Graham sound reasonable.
Trump’ s friends in the media are very few. Few in his own party and few in his own administration. He may be impeached if the dems don’t win a majority and despite the fact their is no crime I wouldn’t be surprised to see Republicans voting for impeachment. We are having what amounts to a coup.
What a load of paranoid hateful bullshit. The senate is holding pro forma sessions just as it did for the last six years, and just as it did for a while during the Bush years. You didn’t complain about it then, so shut the **** up about it now. Pro forma sessions are now the normal procedure of the senate, and you should expect them to continue indefinitely.
First of all, why should the senate go on recess and let the president bypass the normal appointment process?
Second, going on recess requires the House’s permission, which has not been given. So they have to hold pro forma sessions.
Third, going on recess would probably require unanimous consent of the senate, which is never again going to happen.