A former adviser to 2016 GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush is pushing House Democrats to impeach President Trump and force Republican senators to vote on Trump’s fitness for office.
Republican political consultant Mike Murphy called out Democrats in an op-ed for the Washington Post published on Tuesday. Murphy said the time has come to force the impeachment question because of recent revelations of Trump’s dealings with Ukraine and the president’s asking a foreign government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a political opponent.
“The new sins are too big and too obvious,” Murphy writes. “Our entire national political debate is now centered squarely upon Trump and his fitness for office. It is a time for clarity, no matter what the cost.”
“It’s comparatively easy for the House Democrats to punish Trump with charges; the vital question is whether Senate Republicans would be brave enough to clean their own house, or brave enough to defend the president’s actions without equivocation,” Murphy continues.
Democrats should impeach Trump before the 2020 election and put Republican senators in tight races in the difficult position of having to defend a controversial and partisan vote, according to Murphy.
“Endangered Republican senators such as Cory Gardner of Colorado, Susan Collins of Maine and Martha McSally of Arizona would weigh two painful election-year options: one in which they struggle in their purple states to explain their vote to defend the president for doing the indefensible; or another where Vice President Pence leads the ticket but … they can at least pivot to talking about the future and the dangers of the Democratic nominee,” he said.
“My Democratic friends assume the worst, seeing most elected Republicans as little more than a corrupt cartel of Trump bitter-enders,” Murphy concludes. “I think they underestimate the character of many of the men and women I know well who serve the Republican Party. But now is the time the country must find out. Force the question with impeachment.”
