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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe should probably listen to these people
Scott Stedman @ScottMStedman 13m13 minutes agoWe should probably listen to these people. They lived it. And theyre all telling us that we are heading off a cliff.
Scott Stedman @ScottMStedman 14m14 minutes ago
.@realBobWoodward: Its a national emergency in the White House.
.@carlbernstein: there has been a criminal conspiracy led by the president.
.@JohnWDean: This is much more damning than Watergate.
.@JillWineBanks: Trump's Legal Troubles Worst Since Watergate.
Jarqui
(10,123 posts)Right now they do not.
It probably depends on Mueller
AG-to-be William Barr may shut Mueller down trying to preserve Trump.
Without more from Mueller, the Republicans are not going to do anything.
Which means Trump could finish out his term or resign near the end in exchange for a pardon.
bigtree
(85,990 posts)...there was the reelection.
However, there was a shift in opposition when events moved beyond the investigative stage.
Forty years ago today, Richard Nixon announced his resignation from the nations highest office, making that decision in the face of almost certain impeachment by the House and plummeting public support, as a majority of Americans called for his removal from office. But it happened in stages.
Nixon had won reelection in 1972 by a landslide and began his second term with a lofty 68% Gallup Poll approval rating in January 1973. But the Watergate scandal which started with an effort to bug the Democratic National Committee office at the Watergate Hotel and subsequent efforts to cover it up quickly took a heavy toll on those ratings, especially when coupled with a ramp-up in public concerns about inflation. By April, a resounding 83% of the American public had heard or read about Watergate, as the president accepted the resignations of his top aides John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman. And in turn, Nixons approval ratings fell to 48%.
But that was just the beginning of the toll the scandal would take on the president that year. The televised Watergate hearings that began in May 1973, chaired by Senator Samuel Ervin, commanded a large national audience 71% told Gallup they watched the hearings live. And as many as 21% reported watching 10 hours or more of the Ervin proceedings. Not too surprisingly, Nixons popularity took a severe hit. His ratings fell as low as 31%, in Gallups early August survey.
The public had changed its view of the scandal. A 53% majority came to the view that Watergate was a serious matter, not just politics, up from 31% who believed that before the hearings. Indeed, an overwhelming percentage of the public (71%) had come to see Nixon as culpable in the wrongdoing, at least to some extent. About four-in-ten (37%) thought he found out about the bugging and tried to cover it up; 29% went further in saying that he knew about the bugging beforehand, but did not plan it; and 8% went all the way, saying he planned it from beginning to end. Only 15% of Americans thought that the president had no prior knowledge and spoke up as soon as he learned of it.
Yet, despite the increasingly negative views of Nixon at that time, most Americans continued to reject the notion that Nixon should leave office, according to Gallup. Just 26% thought he should be impeached and forced to resign, while 61% did not.
more: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/08/how-the-watergate-crisis-eroded-public-support-for-richard-nixon/
Jarqui
(10,123 posts)on that chart
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/13/politics/trump-impeachment/index.html
The release of transcripts was a big deal that moved the needle as the chart shows but it was the release of the tapes that pushed Republicans over thew top.
They covered themselves by installing minority leader Gerald Ford as VP.
Many of us saw Orin Hatch's reaction to campaign finance felonies. He's since retracted but I think his original response is closer to the truth.
Mueller has to deliver a devastating case for the Republicans to impeach. if their conspiracy theorists can blame it on "the Kenyan" or whoever, they will.
So the chart is not that useful to determine when or if things are going to happen.
Mueller has to deliver considerably more for impeachment. As today's GOP appear to be mixed up in this through the NRA, they may never allow him to be impeached - regardless of public groundswell
bigtree
(85,990 posts)...the writing is on the wall.
Jarqui
(10,123 posts)Have no illusions about that.
They need to face a legal slam dunk to impeach Trump because they're going to want his base.
YessirAtsaFact
(2,064 posts)There are so many crimes, so much out and out stealing and corruption and they are going to be put on display starting next month when the Democrats in the House start public hearings next month.
Mueller will continue with court filings, and they will add to this huge pile of evidence. This will continue until his report is ready. By the time his report is delivered, 90% of it will likely be public knowledge due to court activity and House investigations.
It will be an absolute deluge of information, 95% of it bad for Trump. Money laundering and racketeering charges are very possible as well as conspiracy with the Russians in the 2016 election.
Once rocks start getting turned over in public, impeachment will become inevitable.
YessirAtsaFact
(2,064 posts)Especially if those people have been listening to the orange monster and Fox News.
There will be some last gasp supporters, but a lot of people are going to be blasted out of the right wing echo chamber into reality.
I also believe that those people, in turn, will move Republican Senators.
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. Granted, the WH looks like the Titanic right now, but as Randy Bachman once famously said, "You aint seen nothing yet."