New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker said on “Rising” that the length of time people have been discussing President Trump’s impeachment is unprecedented.
“You haven’t seen a president like this who has from the very beginning been able to battle this idea of impeachment,” Baker, who is currently promoting a new book he co-authored, told Hill.TV co-hosts Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on Wednesday.
“He was just barely elected and people started talking about this with Donald Trump, so in that context we wanted to try to provide a little bit of history and a little bit of facts for people for this conversation that we’re probably going to have after this election,” he continued.
The journalist warned that removing Trump from office cannot be a partisan issue, emphasizing that Republicans must be on board with impeachment proceedings in order for it to come to fruition, citing President Clinton as just one example.
“A partisan impeachment won’t work — didn’t work under Andrew Johnson, he was acquitted in the Senate trial, didn’t work under Bill Clinton, he was acquitted in the Senate trial,” he told Hill.TV.
Baker added that impeaching Trump is “hard to conceive” of unless special counsel Robert Mueller “comes up with something that changes that dynamic.”
Mueller began his probe into Russia meddling in the 2016 presidential election shortly after Trump took office and has yet to issue a report on his findings. The president, meanwhile, has attacked the investigation as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.”
Talks of Trump’s impeachment could be a motivating factor for both parties ahead of November’s midterm elections, but Baker warns that Democrats need to be especially careful when it comes to using these discussions as a means to rally their base.
“Democrats have a problem, though, assuming they win, if they do win, they have a base that is so riled up, so angry at President Trump that they’re going to push their leadership to go for impeachment proceedings even if there’s no chance of conviction in the Senate,” he said.
Top Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), remain wary of any talk about removing Trump from office.
Even some progressives, such as Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), have also warned fellow Democrats not to rush into impeachment proceedings before Mueller concludes his investigation.
“My view is that impeachment, like the power to declare war, is one of the gravest responsibilities of Congress — it should never be our first option, it should be something done only after the facts and the law, so let’s see what Robert Mueller’s investigation ultimately reveals,” Lieu told Hill.TV.
— Tess Bonn
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