CNN’s Bianna Golodryga: ‘Rumblings’ from Democrats on censuring Trump instead of impeachment

CNN senior global affairs analyst Bianna Golodryga said Tuesday that she’s hearing “rumblings” within the Democratic caucus that perhaps the party “should just go with censure” instead of trying to impeach President Trump.

“You’re now hearing rumblings within, Democrats saying, ‘Maybe we should just go with censure,’ or not really knowing how to move forward on this given where the president is and given where Republicans are,” said Golodryga, who joined CNN after stints with ABC, CBS and Yahoo News.

She pointed out that two weeks of public testimony on Trump’s dealings with Ukraine “did not move at all” the positions of Republicans ranging from moderates such as Rep. Will Hurd (Texas) to more vocal Trump defenders such as Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.).

“They said that they do not believe anything the president did was impeachable and, in fact, they seem to be protecting the president more than they were prior to these two weeks,” she said.

Polls in 2020 battleground states indicate that voters aren’t fully sold on House Democrats’ impeachment efforts.

Surveys taken in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Wisconsin show an average of 51 percent opposing impeachment and 44 percent supporting it, according to a Tuesday Washington Post story.

Trump, currently in London at this year’s NATO summit, has repeatedly called the impeachment hearings “a hoax” and “a disgrace.” 

The House Judiciary Committee is set to hold a hearing on Wednesday titled “The Impeachment Inquiry into President Donald J. Trump: Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment.”

Witnesses include legal scholars as Democrats consider if evidence presented before the House Intelligence Committee warrant the drafting of articles of impeachment.

In October, no GOP House members voted for a measure to formalize procedures for impeachment proceedings. Just two Democrats opposed the measure.

Impeachment by the House would lead to a trial in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is required in the Republican-controlled chamber to remove the president from office.