President Donald Trump told supporters Saturday that Republicans need to maintain the House majority or he risks impeachment by Democrats.
“We have to keep the House because if we listen to Maxine Waters, she’s going around saying ‘We will impeach him,’ ” Trump said at a Michigan rally reported by Fox News.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is one of the most vocal advocates when it comes to repeatedly calling for Trump’s resignation or impeachment. The latest comment came as Waters urged Trump to “please resign” last week at the Time 100 gala in New York City.
“So that I won’t have to keep up this fight of your having to be impeached because I don’t think you deserve to be there,” Waters said. “Just get out.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), however, is warning Democrats that impeaching Trump could harm the party before the midterm elections.
“On the political side I think it’s a gift to the Republicans,” Pelosi said Thursday. “We want to talk about what they’re doing to undermine working families in our country and what we are doing to increase their payrolls and lower their costs.”
A Quinnipiac poll released Thursday shows 70 percent of Democrat supporters want the House to begin impeachment proceedings.
As mid-term elections arrive, Democrats are hoping to capitalize on “liberal enthusiasm and anti-Trump sentiment,” the New York Times reported.
All 435 House seats are open, but only 48 seats are considered competitive (rated tossup or leaning toward one party), based on an average of estimates from three organizations, the report states.
Democrats must flip 24 Republican seats and retain the 194 seats they currently hold to become the House majority, something that has eluded the party since 2010, according to the report.
The Times points to two indicators that could influence whether it could happen this year:
“But, congressional races are inherently local elections, and the individual candidates on the ballot will matter in November,” the report stated.
