# Trump and a feeling of momentum for impeachment **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 16, 2017, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785 "2017-05-16T19:40:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/21 "2017-05-16T21:19:42Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > He’s not going to be removed from office by impeachment. **Bricker** is offering $200 even odds. I’d happily offer $200 that Trump isn’t removed by impeachment _and_ I’ll give you 2:1. > > The reason is simple: the GOP base DGAF. Trump really could shoot a person on 5th avenue, as long as that person is a Democrat. Removing him is a political death sentence for at least 34 GOP Senators, and it will remain so regardless of what Trump does. I think the odds increase significantly if the House flips in 2018. But even then, I think it’s unlikely. Nancy Pelosi is smarter on such matters than New Gingrich. But even if he does get impeached, removal from office is a long, long, long shot. And, please, everyone repeat after me: Impeachment is NOT removal from office. It’s the first step, but not the last. I was pretty sure he’d quit after a year or so, but I’m not making predictions like that anymore. Who knows how his mind works (or if it works). ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/22 "2017-05-16T21:30:17Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > The reason is simple: the GOP base DGAF. Trump really could shoot a person on 5th avenue, as long as that person is a Democrat. Removing him is a political death sentence for at least 34 GOP Senators, and it will remain so regardless of what Trump does. I’ll go further; Trump could give away a (blue) state to Russia in exchange for a favorable business deal for his kids. The Trumpsters would simply laugh about how pissed off the Libtards are, and how they are all snowflakes. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/23 "2017-05-16T21:33:52Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > A massive and unrelenting disapproval might move him to quit. On the contrary, this would probably make him stay all the more, out of spite, at least a couple more years. Until the 2020 election, which he wouldn’t want to lose. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/24 "2017-05-16T21:39:01Z")
> **[Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation (Published 2017)](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/politics/james-comey-trump-flynn-russia-investigation.html)** > > “I hope you can let this go,” the president told the F.B.I. director in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo James B. Comey wrote. According to this, Comey wrote a memo immediately after Trump asked him to stop the Flynn investigation, documenting the conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/25 "2017-05-16T21:41:33Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I was pretty sure he’d quit after a year or so, but I’m not making predictions like that anymore. Who knows how his mind works (or if it works). I think David Brooks nailed it recently: > [@](#): > > We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/26 "2017-05-16T21:57:24Z")
Mitch McConnell recently said that we “could do with a little less drama from the White House.” OK, hardly a stinging rebuke, but consider the source. > [@crucible](#): > > The timing of the mideast trip is horrible. I wonder if the Massad has a turncoat Hezbollah guy who will try to eliminate the existentialist threat, thrump, to Israel. I wonder if our Intelligence folks would try to stop them? Thrump has very few friends or supporters left in the Agencies in Washington. His appointees don’t seem to have any support from the rank and file. Every agancy is resisting, all they are worth, the wacko people like Price, DeVos, and Ross. I suspect, if Thrump were to be offed by a terrorist group, there might be actual dancing on the rooftops in some parts of this country, and a sigh of relief in others as Pence is sworn in and goes to the mattresses. I think the Mideast trip will be very telling. I don’t share the thought that someone will assassinate Trump, but he doesn’t seem to be holding up at all well under the stress lately. Remember too that this is the guy who traveled back to New York just about every night during the campaign because he doesn’t like sleeping away from home. And international travel is generally very tiring. And his word salad seems to be worse than ever. And he seems (to me and others, including according to reports some of the WH staff) to be even more erratic than usual. I think we’ll be lucky if his gaffes cause only minor international incidents. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/27 "2017-05-16T22:15:32Z")
The problem with the feeling of impeachment inevitability is that the conversation about this is taking place entirely among people with critical thinking skills, who are able to look ahead, see the consequences of current actions, and predict that, in the future, there will be bad stuff happening. On the other hand, among the voting population, there appear to be significant numbers of people who truly can’t do that, and will neither see nor acknowledge the bad stuff until it’s actually in the process of happening to them. If they still have a job to go to, there’s no problem. If there’s not actually a riot happening down the road as of 0800 this morning, there’s no problem. If you can go to the supermarket and there’s rows of groceries on the shelves, not a mass of blank space, there’s no problem. Essentially, you’re going to have to actually IRL drive off the cliff before this mass of voters believes that what all those highfalutin’ \*edumacated \* people kept on saying was terrible, actually is terrible. Because they have no future planning or prediction skill, and to them, ‘This is going to cause us terrible problems next week’ is exactly the same as ‘Everything’s fine, we are currently experiencing no problems’. It’s a case of ‘Holy crap! The bridge is out ahead! We have to wrestle this maniac bus driver out of his seat and hit the brakes’ ‘Well, hell man, I don’t see it. Looks like we’re progressing down the road fine to me.’ ‘Yeah but, dude. The bridge is out \*ahead \*. We’re going to go over it in about 30 seconds.’ ‘Are all four wheels on the ground right now? Yup. Are we still heading for the next bus stop? Sure thing. Seems to me like you’re making a bit of a mountain out of that molehill.’ ‘The fuck? We’re ABOUT to go off the edge. If we don’t stop it right now, the momentum’s going to carry us over’ ‘You keep saying that … gunna this, gunna that … but ever since you first said we had to do something I myself have experienced literally no probl…OOOOOOHHHHH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKK.’ ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/28 "2017-05-16T22:20:46Z")
Just wanted to point something out from the OP. There’s no evidence any of Clinton’s emails were stolen or that classified information was given to people that weren’t allowed to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/29 "2017-05-16T22:21:14Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > ‘You keep saying that … gunna this, gunna that … but ever since you first said we had to do something I myself have experienced literally no probl…OOOOOOHHHHH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKK.’ Followed by: “Why didn’t you tell us the bus was going to crash? It’s all Obama/Hillary’s fault” ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/30 "2017-05-16T22:21:33Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > On the other hand, among the voting population, there appear to be significant numbers of people who truly can’t do that, and will neither see nor acknowledge the bad stuff until it’s actually in the process of happening to them. Polls in the US this morning had 48% of the population supporting Trump’s impeachment, compared to 40% who opposed. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/31 "2017-05-16T22:22:24Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Just wanted to point something out from the OP. There’s no evidence any of Clinton’s emails were stolen or that classified information was given to people that weren’t allowed to see it. I guess maybe their complaint was that she made it too tough on foreign governments to get the info? She should have held a briefing for them? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/32 "2017-05-16T22:26:02Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I guess maybe their complaint was that she made it too tough on foreign governments to get the info? She should have held a briefing for them? Implying that she leaked info or gave it to people that don’t have clearance for it sounds much worse than using the improper channels to give it to people that should see it. If using the improper channels resulted in charges, half of all people with clearances would be in jail. I see it a couple times a year easily. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/33 "2017-05-16T22:29:55Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Has the GOP stopped getting everything they want passed with no resistance? Otherwise, there’s zero chance of Trump getting impeached any time soon. He’s an idiot, but he’s a useful idiot, and mere evil or incompetence isn’t enough to even raise a GOP eyebrow at the current time. This. “Will no one rid me of this [del]troublesome priest[/del] useful idiot?” said no one, ever. (Plus they need the votes of his supporters) ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/34 "2017-05-16T22:37:51Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > **Bricker** is offering $200 even odds. I’d happily offer $200 that Trump isn’t removed by impeachment _and_ I’ll give you 2:1. And if there’s a second poster out there who wants Trump impeachment for $200 @ 2:1 I’ll stake them too. (Bricker is a wuzzz :)) Sure, he’s an erratic out-of-his-depth blowhard but he needs to commit “high crimes and demeanours” not just brag and post dumb shit on Twitter. And if he’s impeached before the crowd that elected him recognise that they’ve profoundly fucked up. If he gets turfed, or the motion even gets to a vote while in their eyes he’s still their boy valiantly trying to drain the elitist swamp atop the Hill, then the far right ideologue they’ll elect next time won’t be a mostly harmless, self-aggrandising buffoon. You (collectively) elected him, take your medicine sans saccharine and fix the problem root & branch. At this stage it’d be evens he wins a second term, on the proviso he has the endurance to stand. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/35 "2017-05-16T22:41:08Z")
> [@Evil\_Economist](#): > > Polls in the US this morning had 48% of the population supporting Trump’s impeachment, compared to 40% who opposed. Which is absolutely a good thing. I just don’t think it’s enough yet. President Park Gyun-hye of South Korea recently managed to get herself impeached for serious corruption. But her popularity managed to get down to four percent (four percent!!) before that happened. I don’t necessarily think Trump needs to get down to quite that level. But his popularity’s still on 38%. At minimum, I think he needs to crack the 20% barrier before you can say his supporters are really realising what they’ve done. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/36 "2017-05-16T22:41:50Z")
Well, lets just say that if I were Mike Pence I would start re-watching the second season of House of Cards, looking for pointers. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/37 "2017-05-16T23:14:27Z")
> [@Evil\_Economist](#): > > Polls in the US this morning had 48% of the population supporting Trump’s impeachment, compared to 40% who opposed. [Polls in 2014](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/14/obama-impeachment-poll_n_5584055.html) had 1/3 of Americans supporting impeachment for Obama. This stuff is pretty meaningless. Or, consider 33% to be the floor, and then you have the real number at 15%. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/38 "2017-05-16T23:28:18Z")
At some point Congressional Republicans are going to realize President Trump is making it harder to get their agenda passed. That is the point impeachment proceedings will begin. Electorally, it’s better for Democrats that Trump remain in office. Expect them to drag the proceedings on as long as possible. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/39 "2017-05-16T23:29:50Z")
> [@](#): > > …had 1/3 of Americans supporting impeachment for Obama. This stuff is pretty meaningless. Or, consider 33% to be the floor, and then you have the real number at 15%. No fair flummoxing the mathtards! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785/40 "2017-05-16T23:38:12Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > No fair flummoxing the mathtards! Oh, I’m sorry. 33.33333…% 😃 I didn’t look up the actual number, but I doubt it was exactly 33%. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-a-feeling-of-momentum-for-impeachment/786785.md?page=3)