There are enough votes to start an impeachment proceeding, but no control at all over what the results are (not guilty! Guilty, with a penalty of nothing, vs leave office and go directly to jail).
One can hope that if enough compelling evidence exists that the Republican senators believe that if they defend him the Americans pubic will both disapprove and still remember that disapproval when it is time for re-election.
And/or that with compelling enough evidence that enough of them will not respond only to craven self interest, but with genuine care about the future of the counter. However the last two years have made me doubt they care about anything other then holding onto power.
I mean they can still surprise me, but rarely in a good way.
Maybe. Hopefully. As various people mention above, I think it’s more likely that Trump will double down and use what powers he does have to screw things up more. Also, ahem, things change. Putin’s hold on power was wobbly until the Russian apartment bombings and then the Moscow theater hostage crisis. Putin used various dramatic events, starting with the apartment bombings to neuter his political opposition. I don’t think Trump’s as competent as Putin but, ahem, the GOP brain trust might be.
One part of that article strikes me as pretty absurd.
‘What would happen if there were a very independent-minded candidate, a third-party candidate with no partisan label, who would come and unite America?’” Webster says. “That is absolutely not going to happen.” In surveys, independents seem to make up a large percentage, but if you press those self-identified independents on their voting behaviour, they look just like strong partisans.
Yeah, because there isn’t a viable third party to vote for and they either choose the lesser of two evils or don’t vote at all. The author’s logic seems to be, “A third party isn’t going to come into existence and unite America because nobody is already voting for that non-existent third party.” Now, I highly doubt that anyone is going to “unite America”, but the right candidate could potentially at least unite the political left, as well as pulling in non-voters.
Unlike President Richard M. Nixon, Trump is not going to resign if the institutions of the state prove that he has broken the law. He can’t resign: To do so would bring down not only his administration but also his business and his reputation, the basis of which is his personal brand. He will try, instead, to break the institutions — and he will need the support of his community of believers to do it.
Yeah, he’s going to go down tentacles flailing and aiming to do as much collateral damage as possible. This might sound like it would only be bad for people he thinks “betrayed” him, but remember that he thinks that America betrayed him so chances are pretty good that he’s not going to go down quietly, and I don’t see intentionally leaking classified information or other illegal activity as being at all beneath him, especially if he’s feeling cornered.
I’d always figured resignation (it’s not fun any more, or the Republican leadership threatens him with 25th amendment because he’s too much of a liability) or 25h amendment. The reason they might go for the 25 is that they don’t have to admit they fucked up, they can say Trump was great, but, the stress has been too much, he isn’t up for it, and they can threaten him by saying that he’s lost his shit, and isn’t competent, or, he can resign, and they’ll only say nice things about him. But impeachment? No, and the Democrats should keep him around to torment with hearings and such, and to tar the Republicans with.
It’s going to suck to be Trump for the next two years. Just pray we escape without seeing his penis.
