I get the impression that many Democrats actually already wanted Trump impeached before he ever took office, but were waiting for him to commit the appropriate crime/misdeed for him to be charged.
FTR, I’m onboard with impeachment and would prefer Pence be president.
I’m not sure I understand the question. Are you asking when did I believe there was sufficient evidence that articles of impeachment should be drafted, approved, and sent to the Senate?
Or when I felt that the best outcome for the nation would be his impeachment and removal?
Or when I felt it likely that he had committed acts that warranted impeachment, even if the evidence for those facts hadn’t been discovered/reported/verified?
For the first, Ukraine. For the second, the night he was elected. For the third, the Mueller investigation along with the Cohen hush-money payments.
This, more or less. I am asking when Dopers ***wanted ***Trump to be impeached. Which does not require Trump to have actually yet done something that needed impeaching.
I don’t think impeachment is a good idea.
This is still ambiguous. A most likely outcome now is impeachment WITHOUT removal. There’s a widespread belief this will HELP Trump politically. Many Democrats pushed for impeachment out of duty to the law, knowing it is likely to backfire politically.
I just want him to die. As painfully and lingeringly as possible.
And then I want Pence to catch whatever he had.
No Republican should ever hold a position of public trust again.
ETA: And I think this should have been a public poll (as all of them should be).
This, exactly. I voted “Ukraine quid pro quo,” because I assumed the OP had the first question in mind.
After reading the OP’s clarification, obviously I would change my vote in this poll, if I could. The OP might want to ask this thread to be closed, and start over.
The moment when he fired Jim Comey, they should have started up drawing articles of impeachment and as soon as he admitted to it on the ABC interview, they should have started hearings. I don’t care if it never would have passed, you can impeach a president multiple times.
Nitpick, I believe you’re referring to the Lester Holt interview on NBC. But I pretty much agree with this timeline. He fired Comey for a nefarious purpose, then a day later invited Russian agents into the Oval Office where no Americans were present and he spilled intelligence to them.
Why? Exactly value do you gain from learning when [a handful of] Dopers [who bother to answer your latest preloaded question] wanted Donald Trump to be impeached?
It’s merely the latest of his serious enquiries seeking to ascertain exactly how partisan and corrupt Democrats are. It’s important to ask these questions.
As to the question he asked: I wanted him to be impeached once there was sufficient evidence to do so.
Between conception and birth.
I acknowledge that this isn’t fair and it’s also not what I checked on your poll. “Impeached” lends itself to an interpretation of legitimate malfeasance (and sufficient evidence), so I ticked off “after Russian interference in the election became apparent”, because I saw reason to believe that he had been a non-innocent non-bystander in that process.
Whereas what you seem to be asking is when did we want him to go away so we didn’t have to experience him. That could be (/could have been) accomplished by a number of processes more appropriate than an impeachment, especially given
Eons and eons before there was any notion that he was going to enter politics, I had developed a strong antipathy for the man and his way of being in the world.
I resent him breathing my air. He’s wasting perfectly good oxygen.
But I have no illusion that my dislike for a person creates the authority or moral excuse to remove a person, lest there be any doubt on that matter.
I wanted Trump to resign from the moment he took office, but I didn’t want him impeached until there was a combination of solid evidence plus some chance of public support (because I recognize a bogus impeachment would both backfire on the Democrats and have long-term consequences for the country). I think that point was reached sometime after the Mueller report but before the Ukraine thing became public.
I knew he needed to be impeached (if he won) during the debates: “Russia, if you’re listening…”
I think you could’ve started drawing up the paperwork well before he was elected, just get it ready with a space available for entering the fine detail, that it *would *be needed was never really in doubt.
He is a sleazy scumball crook, a liar and a fantasist, a narcissist and a cheat. That was clear from even a cursory glance at his past. He was never going to change and his behaviour was never going to improve but the scope and scale of his misdeeds were only going to increase.
Stupid question. You are asking a group of people who opposed his presidency “when did you not want him to be president?” Obviously the preference would be ASAP after inauguration. Just like all those who opposed Obama wished he could be removed from office the moment he took the oath.
Now if the question is “when was the right time to start impeachment, based on the evidence?” In my opinion, the Comey admission was an admission of guilt for obstruction of justice. That should have been enough. Add the Mueller report on top of that? Plenty of evidence of obstruction. And I disagree with Mueller’s conclusion that there was no evidence of collusion. The report itself details how polling data was shared between the Trump campaign and the Russians. That IS collusion with foreign govt to interfere.
I voted “between election and inauguration,” but I would have preferred to vote “just after inauguration.” To me, the emoluments clause seemed like quite a serious violation, which was present from day one. It wasn’t impeachable before he was president, because you can’t impeach a president-elect or a candidate. But on Day One, he was in deliberately violating the Constitution in a serious way that no other president had, and it was widely reported.
Me neither.
Pretty much my thinking as well. Except, I think.even a solid impeachment such as what is happening will still be spun as bogus, and make Republicans say they are going to impeach the next Democratic president, just because they don’t like them or the election result. But the Ukraine matter is too important not to do it.
This. He’s completely hobbled the protection of US elections against interference, due to his fragile ego, and the GOP has enabled him for a multitude of bad reasons.