Congressman Adam Schiff, interviewed on CNN the day after Robert Mueller testified before the House Intelligence Committee, characterizes the president’s conduct as: “Unethical, unpatriotic, wrong, and criminal.” Doesn’t that meet the definition of what is impeachable?
“I think that’s unquestionably the case, but that’s what I think. Can we make the case to the country? And does the country benefit from going through an impeachment if it is going to be unsuccessful? And we know in the Senate, at least, it would be unsuccessful.
So, I’m not there yet, but I’m keeping an open mind and I may get there.
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2020 is unquestionably the only way he gets removed from office, so we can never lose sight of that.
I have tried to put the political question out of my head—that is, Does an impeachment help us in 2020 or does it hurt us politically?—because I don’t think it’s the right question to ask.
But we do need to be realistic and that is: the only way he’s leaving office, at least at this point, is by being voted out. And I think our efforts need to be made in every respect to make sure that we turn out our people.
But on the policy question, what’s the best thing, what’s the right thing for the county? Should we put the country through an impeachment? I haven’t been convinced yet that we should. And going through that kind of momentous and disruptive experience for the country is not something we go into lightly.”