Talk of impeachment Brushed off
GOP sees no evidence; Dems have other goals
WASHINGTON — After the guilty plea by former lawyer Michael Cohen and the fraud conviction of onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Tuesday, members of both parties on Wednesday dismissed talk of impeaching President Donald Trump.
Trump’s strongest supporters echoed his “no collusion” retorts, suggesting that, absent any evidence that he worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election, there is no high-crimes-and-misdemeanors case for impeachment.
Democrats are trying to tamp down expectations from their liberal base of taking on the president for fear that impeachment talk will cause GOP voters to rally around Trump in November.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY., brushed past reporters Wednesday without answering questions about Cohen or the possibility that the lawyer’s accusations about an illegal campaign cover-up are grounds for impeachment proceedings. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-wis., who is away from Washington, had no direct response. An aide said he needs more information.
Other Republicans, though, filled the gaps.
“No collusion=no impeachment,” tweeted the influential radio host Hugh Hewitt, setting the day’s tone.
He explained that impeachment is a political and legal term of art and said there needs to be a tipping point in public opinion that would push Congress to act. It’s not there yet, he tweeted.
Doug Deason, a Texas-based donor and major Trump supporter, said voters simply don’t care that the president behaves badly at times and has associated with people who broke the law.
“In no way, shape or form did we think we were hiring St. Trump to repair the morals of the country,” he said.
Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University and a Trump confidant, said: “Anything short of the campaign actually conspiring with Russia to try to impact the election, anything short of that will just be background noise.”
Even Republicans who have spoken out about Trump are treading carefully in the wake of Cohen’s guilty plea.
“I don’t think I’ve witnessed anything like I’ve witnessed over the last year and a half. Probably, the American people haven’t in modern times,” said retiring Sen. Bob Corker, R-tenn. But he stopped short of passing further judgment on the Cohen case.
“I’m sure there’s going to be other revelations that come up,” Corker said, “and I think we ought to just let the process work.”
Democratic donor Tom Steyer’s Twitter feed called for others to join his campaign to impeach the president.
“How much more corruption do we need to see?” Steyer tweeted.
But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-calif., said that unless other information emerges, impeaching Trump is “not a priority” for Democrats if they regain control of the House this fall. Pelosi said she prefers to see Democrats work to ensure special counsel Robert Mueller can finish his investigation.