Red state Dem: Trump has ‘committed impeachable offenses’

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) on Wednesday said he believes President Trump has “committed impeachable offenses,” but he said it would be a “waste of time” to try and impeach Trump in a Republican-controlled Congress.

“I think there are a lot of us, myself included, who believe that Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses, but that doesn’t mean that impeachment is a reasonable thing to pursue,” Yarmuth told host Katy Tur on MSNBC’s “MTP Daily.”

“We’re not in the majority so we are not going to get passed in the House. It takes two-thirds in the Senate. We’d never get close if we got an impeachment resolution passed. So it would just be a waste of time,” he added.

{mosads}

Despite his dismissal of impeachment efforts, the Kentucky lawmaker said it is “appropriate” to continue to have a conversation about whether to impeach the U.S. leader.

“It’s appropriate to talk about the fact that this man deserves to be impeached,” he told Tur.

Yarmuth, who had introduced articles of impeachment in the House and then tabled them, cited the time Trump “threatened to revoke TV licenses over content that was questionable to him” as one example of an impeachable offense.

“To me, that’s an abuse of power that rises to an impeachable offense,” he said, adding that it “doesn’t mean we’re going to spend any time talking about it.”

The lawmaker represents Kentucky’s 3rd District, which includes the Louisville metropolitan area. His district is just one of two counties in Kentucky that voted for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over Trump in last year’s presidential election.

Yarmuth said instead of trying to impeach Trump ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, he agrees with Democratic leadership that their strategy should be to focus on important issues like expanding voting rights, a fair tax code, improving infrastructure and restructuring student debt. 

“I think most of our leadership, at least in the House side, has said we don’t want to rile up the Republican vote. Right now we have a huge energy advantage and our voters are telling us every day, our base is saying, go after him. Impeach him. Please do. But that’s not going to help us win back control of the House,” he said.

“I agree with leadership, we shouldn’t be running on it. We should be running on how we can make American lives better for the people,” Yarmuth continued.