Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) warned his party during a CNN interview on Monday that trying to remove President Donald Trump from office is bad politics because of who he believes Republicans will select to run in 2020 if Trump is impeached.
“I do think that it’s the right thing to do to remove him from office. I believe he is an imminent danger to this country and to our democracy, but I was saying that the political consequences may not be very good for the Democrats,” Yarmuth said. “I will guarantee you the Republican Party would not nominate Mike Pence to succeed him. They would nominate someone like Nikki Haley who would be much more difficult for Democrats to defeat.”
“I just think it could be bad politics,” Yarmuth continued.
Yarmuth made the comments when he was asked by CNN about an interview he gave to The Hill in early November where he said that he did not think that it was a good idea to remove Trump from office.
“As much as I believe that President Trump should be removed from office and represents an imminent threat to our Democracy and our national security and many other things, politically — it’s probably not a good thing to get rid of him,” Yarmuth told The Hill. “I don’t think the Republican would nominate [Vice President] Mike Pence. I think they would nominate somebody like Nikki Haley. Somebody who would be very, very tough for a Democrat to beat.”
While it may be a long shot that Haley would receive the Republican nomination in 2020, it would be disastrous for Democrats because she is widely considered to be one of the most well-liked politicians in the country.
CNN reported last year:
A broad 63% of American voters approve of her job performance vs. only 17% who say they disapprove in a new Quinnipiac University poll. Twenty percent had no opinion. Her approval spans party lines: 75% of Republicans, 63% of independents and even 55% of Democrats say they approve of how she’s handling her job.
Her support among Democrats is virtually identical to the share of Democrats who approve of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (56%) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (55%) in the same poll.
Axios added that Haley’s approval rating numbers “were unheard of” and noted that “Black and Hispanic voters were more than twice as likely to approve of Haley than Trump, and women nearly so.”
In an interview published on Sunday by USA Today, Democrat Congressman Jefferson Van Drew said that while he does not like Trump’s “rudeness” he does support some of Trump’s policies and opposes removing him from office.
“To some folks, that’s reminiscent of what was done to kings and queens many years ago,” Van Drew said. “Everything our country doesn’t stand for.”
In late November, Democrat Rep. Brenda Lawrence (MI) said that Trump should be censured but not removed from office.
“You can censure, you don’t have to remove the president,” Lawrence said. “We are so close to an election. I will tell you, sitting here, knowing how divided this country is, I don’t see the value of kicking him out of office, but I do see the value of putting down a marker saying his behavior is not acceptable.”
This report has been updates to include additional information.