Al Franken warns fellow Democrats against impeaching Trump

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is warning his fellow liberal colleagues against pushing for President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

If many Democrats get their way and Trump is impeached and removed from office over potential collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives, Vice President Mike Pence would become president, which would lead to a whole new world of problems, according to Franken.

“He’s ideological, I consider him a zealot,” the lawmaker told the International Business Times in an interview published Monday. “And I think that in terms of a lot of domestic policy, [Pence] certainly would be worse than Trump.”

Franken argued that Pence, who ran Trump’s transition team, was behind some of the president’s “very worst” Cabinet appointments, such as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, and White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.

Pence’s socially conservative credentials would certainly irk Democrats. After all, he often describes himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican — in that order.”

However, while he would seemingly find nothing in common with Pence when it comes to domestic policy, Franken is confident the vice president would be a better option when it comes to foreign policy.

“If you’re talking about how we handle North Korea or something like that, I’d probably be more comfortable with Pence ultimately making those decisions than Trump, because of Trump’s personality and character,” Franken said. “I think that [Trump] is so outside the norm in his behavior that that actually does concern me.”

The Minnesota lawmaker, currently in his second term, also said he is concerned impeachment proceedings could worsen Trump’s already unpredictable demeanor and decision making.

“I don’t know what he will do if he looks like he’s going to be impeached and he wants to deflect,” he said. “I don’t know what he’s capable of, and that really does concern me.”

Franken, a former “Saturday Night Live” comedian, is currently promoting his new book, “Al Franken: Giant of the Senate.”

He made headlines last month when it was discovered that Franken dedicated an entire chapter of the new book to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R). In the chapter, titled “Sophistry,” Franken reveals that he really doesn’t like Cruz.

“You have to understand that I like Ted Cruz probably more than my colleagues like Ted Cruz. But I hate Ted Cruz,” Franken recently said, adding that the Republican senator is “smarmy” and “singularly dishonest.”

In response, Cruz called Franken “obnoxious.”

“Al is trying to sell books and apparently he’s decided that being obnoxious and insulting me is good for causing liberals to buy his books,” he said.

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