The chairman of the House Budget Committee says he supports impeaching President Trump but that doing so would more than likely help Republicans on Election Day about a year from now.
“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,” said Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., TheHill.TV on Monday.
Nevertheless, were the president impeached and eventually removed from office, Yarmuth said he believes Republicans would shun Vice President Mike Pence and put another candidate up for election next year.
“I don’t think the Republicans would nominate Mike Pence,” he said. “I think they would nominate somebody like Nikki Haley. Somebody who would be very, very tough for a Democrat to beat.”
President Trump has pushed back against Democratic impeachment efforts, claiming they are a “witch hunt.”
Democrats believe the president may have committed impeachable offenses by abusing his office over allegedly threatening to withhold military aid from Ukraine unless that government gave him political dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.
A transcript of a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July does not indicate the president made such a threat.
However, U.S. Amb. to the EU Gordon Sondland said Tuesday in updating earlier testimony that the president did instruct him to issue the threat.
Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, are conducting an impeachment inquiry but have yet to approve formal impeachment resolutions.