I just watch a MSNBC talking head talk to a House member…
No fewer then 3 times during the interview , which lasted about 5 minutes, did the the reporter ask the the congressman about going to impeachment…
Finally ?
The lawmaker told the interviewer that few Democrats want to something the media and the Republicans have been pushing for….
“Nothing is off the table but we do want to make such a compelling case, such an ironclad case that even the Republican Senate, which at the time seems to be not an objective jury, will be convinced,” Pelosi told the crowd.
She said she was “proud” of House Democrats, calling them “conscientious” about how “they’ve reached their decisions” over whether they believe impeachment proceedings are warranted, but she noted it was only a small number of lawmakers who at this point have called for the drastic move.
“I think it’s like 35 of them out of 238, maybe its 38 out of 238, have said they wanted to be outspoken on impeachment and many of them are reflecting their views as well as those of their constituents,” Pelosi said. “Yes, there are some, and the press makes more of a fuss about the 38 than the 200, who are over half of the Congress.”….
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi, brushing off new comments by Robert Mueller and 2020 Democratic hopefuls, feels as strongly as ever that impeaching President Trump would be a ‘fool’s errand,’” a top ally told Axios.
“Pelosi remains defiant, despite growing calls from fellow Democrats to plunge quickly into impeachment.”
“Ironically, Pelosi is leading the charge against impeachment while GOP Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan is leading the charge for it.”….
(1) I wish you could remember the name of that (clearly) female House member on MSNBC; it matters a lot whether she’s part of the class of 2018 winning narrowly in a Red state or if she’s someone like Ilhan Omar (DFL-Minn,), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) or Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)
(2) To back up what others have said about the unlikelihood of a successful conviction in the Senate after impeachment by the House, the Trumplicans need only 34 Senators [~ 17 states out of 34] to defeat a 2/3 vote.
I sketched out just how many states are definitely red (have not voted for a Democratic presidntial candidate in this century’s 5 elections, 2000-2016): thye number about 24 or almost half. Presently, only 4 of those 48 Senators are Democrats, so Trump could only be convicted if at least 11 of the 44 Senators just from those states (before counting any Republicans from purple or blue states such as Indiana and Maine) crossed the aisle to convict.
While one can certainly conceive of some smoking gun that could move a dozen GOP Senators, the odds currently favor Donald Trump’ acquittal (if impeached) by a forbidding margin.
Now many of the 20 states with 2 GOP Senators today recently elected at least one Democrat to the Senate in recent years. So in pure theory, one can’t say it’s impossible to elect a U.S. Senate less favourable to Donald Trump. But that can’t happen earlier than 2021, by which time one hopes the far-preferable electoral process will (Heaven willing) put him out of his present job without the trauma of yet another attempted impeachment.
Here’s my list. It’s not comprehensive or authoritative, because I used a combination of memory and less-than-exhaustive Wikipedia searches (“List of United States Senators from…”) to compose it.
And remember that Republican Senators do get elected from blue and purple states, so the last time the Democrats held 2/3 of the Senate was over half a century ago, from 1963 to 1967. (Remember how hard it was in 2009 to assemble just 60 Senators to invoke cloture on the ACA ?)
Alaska
* Arizona (1 Dem. – Kyrsten Sinema)
Utah
Idaho
Wyoming
* Montana (1 Dem. since 2015 – Jon Tester; 2 Dem. from 2007 to 2015)
North Dakota * (1 D-NPL from 2011 to 2019 – Heidi Heitkamp; 2 D-NPL from 1987 to 2011)
South Dakota * (1 Dem. from 2005 to 2015 – Tim Johnson; 2 Dems from 1997 to 2005 )
Nebraska * (1 Dem. from 2001 to 2013 – Ben Nelson)
Kansas
Oklahoma
Texas
Louisiana * (1 Dem. from 2005 to 2015 – Mary Landrieu; 2 Dems from 1883 to 2005)
Arkansas * (1 Dem. from 2011 to 2015 – Mark Pryor; 2 Dems from 2003 to 2011)
Missouri * (1 Dem. from 2007 to 2019 – Claire McCaskill)
Tennessee
Kentucky
* West Virginia (1 Dem. – Joe Manchin)
Mississippi
* Alabama (1 Dem. – Doug Jones)
Florida * (1 Dem. from 2001 to 2019 – Bill Nelson)
Georgia
South Carolina
North Carolina * (1 Dem. from 2009 to 2015 – Kay Hagan)
Slight correction: N. Carolina and Florida voted for Obama at least once (as did Indiana), so they don’t meet my definition of deep Red as not having voted for Democratic pres. candidate since the last century. Using that stricter definition, only 22 States (~44 Senators) count as immovably Red.