The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said on Sunday that Democrats should resist calls to impeach President Trump until the special counsel releases the findings of an investigation into whether Trump and his top associates colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that severe allegations against Trump would be needed to convince congressional Republicans to act to remove him from office.
“I don’t think we should be talking about it and embracing it before we’ve seen the whole body of evidence,” he said. “Given the dearth of people in the GOP who aren’t willing to say anything about this president’s conduct, I think you’re going to need a really powerful case.”
The comments come amid a particularly damaging week for Trump. Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, was found guilty of tax fraud and other charges. Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, facing accusations of bank fraud, pleaded guilty to tax fraud and campaign finance violations and in doing so implicated the president in being involved in an illegal hush money payments to women who claim to have affairs with him.
A majority of Democratic voters said they want to impeach Trump, an action he recently said would cause the stock markets to crash.
“I think everybody would be very poor, because without this thinking, you would see numbers that you wouldn’t believe, in reverse,” he told Fox News.
