Just under 40% of registered voters now support removing Trump from office, while another 20% think he should be censured, according to a new Harvard poll. Read story here.
This implies that about 41% are willing to support Trump through thick and thin, which is consistent with Nate Silver’s assessment, which puts Trump’s current approval rating at 41.5%. See those results here.
You don’t have to support Trump to be reluctant to impeach him. After all, the net effect of removing him would be to throw out the 2016 election results, and that’s a road we may not want to travel.
However, there are arguments for cutting short Trump’s presidency, including …
- The Constitution itself provides for removal of elected officials,
- A hostile foreign power interfered with the 2016 election,
- There is strong evidence that Trump engaged in criminal conduct to bolster his campaign,
- Even with Russia’s help, Trump lost the popular vote by a wide margin,
- A majority of the public supports sanctioning him, and…
- He is palpably unfit to serve.
We shouldn’t, of course, remove a president over policy disagreements or because he’s unpopular. But a president isn’t a king, and can be removed for cause, like any other public official. The question then is, what is sufficient cause? The Framers deliberately left this vague; ultimately, it’s a political decision made by Congress. But if Trump’s contempt for rule of law and our governing institutions isn’t enough, what is?
Remnants of Franklin Roosevelt here. People either loved the man or hated him. The basic numbers of 40% supported his removal from office was there. Ultimately the people who can remove the President voted Roosevelt into office three more times.
Impeaching a President is not so hard, but the votes have to be there in the Senate to at least entertain the possibility of removal. As with Roosevelt there is no reasonable political possibility of that happening in the next two years. Unless the man decides to resign for whatever reason or dies he will remain in office until 2021 and the people of the United States will have an election to either keep the man in office or choose someone else. 40% support with an unknown contender is not terrible numbers. Abraham Lincoln would have loved such numbers in 1860 or 1864.
The best way to replace Trump is the upcoming Presidential election. If the Democrats fail perhaps laying off the same old rhetoric would be helpful. (PS that same hostile foreign power interfered with the 2008 and 2012 elections, but that Presidential winner did not have the political backbone to play the same game on that nations current President, or it’s ok if the interference helps our guy?)
“that same hostile foreign power interfered with the 2008 and 2012 elections”
There’s no evidence of that. Read this:
https://www.politifact.com/north-carolina/statements/2017/jun/20/richard-burr/heres-every-time-russian-or-soviet-spies-tried-int/
You’re entitled to your opinions, but this is not factual. The Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the Trump campaign’s collusion, went far beyond any known historical precedent.