President Donald Trump went on a bizarre tangent during a rally Thursday night in Billings, Montana, speculating about his possible impeachment while attempting to convince his supporters to vote Republican in November’s midterm elections.
“This election, you aren’t just voting for a candidate, you’re voting for which party controls Congress,” Trump said. “I don’t even bring it up, because I view it as something that... you know... they like to use the ‘impeach’ word, ‘impeach Trump.’ But I say, how do you impeach somebody that’s doing a great job, that hasn’t done anything wrong? Our economy is good. How do you do it? How do you do it?”
Trump was in Billings to tout GOP candidate Matt Rosendale, who is hoping to unseat Sen. John Tester (D), and the president spent more than an hour speaking about his accomplishments in the White House. But he spent several minutes wondering what would happen were he to be impeached and said that it would be his supporters’ own fault and would turn America “into a third-world country.”
“It is a hell of a place in Washington,” Trump said. “I was thinking if that happened, every time a Republican or a Democrat opposite got elected president.... So let’s say a Democrat got elected someday ― hopefully it’s a long time ― but let’s say we have a Republican House, we will impeach that Democrat, and then a Republican.”
“It’s so ridiculous,” he continued. “But we’ll worry about that if it ever happens. But if it does happen, it’s your fault because you didn’t go out to vote. I’ll be the only president in history... they’ll say, ‘What a job he’s done. By the way, we’re impeaching him.’”
Many Democrats have gone relatively quiet about the prospect of impeachment as Election Day approaches, worried that touting the prospect now would alienate voters.
But following the anonymous editorial published by The New York Times this week, in which a senior Trump administration official wrote that Cabinet officials had discussed removing the president through the use of the 25th Amendment, some lawmakers have turned toward that option as a suitable alternative.
“If senior administration officials think the president of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) declared Thursday. “Every one of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It’s time for them to do their job.”
The midterms are expected to be a litmus test on Trump’s leadership, with many Democrats hoping a blue wave will shift the balance in one or both chambers of Congress.