Top House Democrat Says Removing Trump from Office Ahead of 2020 Election Will Hurt The Party
A top House Democrat is predicting that Democrats will suffer politically if President Trump is impeached and removed from office before the 2020 election.
“As much as I believe that President Trump should be removed from office and represents an imminent threat to our democracy and our national security and many other things, politically it’s probably not a good thing to get rid of him,” House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth told The Hill.
The Kentucky Democrat explained that he doubts the Republican Party would nominate Vice President Mike Pence in that scenario but rather someone like former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
“Somebody who would be very, very tough for a Democrat to beat,” Yarmuth said.
Haley has been proposed as a viable Republican presidential nominee, but she has attempted to quash speculation about whether she will run in 2020, saying she plans to campaign for Trump.
Yarmuth’s remarks come as the Democrat-led House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees continue to release transcripts of their closed-door interviews with witnesses for the impeachment inquiry. The inquiry centers around whether Trump withheld $400 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine on the condition that Ukraine promise to investigate former vice president Joe Biden’s business connections to a local gas company.
Some White House officials have refused to testify despite congressional subpoenas ordering them to do so, frustrating Democrats and exacerbating the lawmakers’ legal battle with the White House.
“This will only add to the body of evidence on a potential obstruction of Congress charge against the president,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said.
