This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog.
It has been widely assumed that the Democrats could never possibly get the votes that they need to remove Donald Trump from office in the U.S. Senate, and so, therefore, the outcome of this entire saga is already a foregone conclusion. But what if that is not true?
In this article, you will see that only 19 members of the Senate are a “firm no” when it comes to impeachment, and 35 members have already publicly committed to convicting Trump. In the end, it is going to take 67 votes to remove Trump from office, and Democrats only control 47 seats. It was always going to be a monumental task to try to find 20 Republican members of the Senate willing to betray Trump, and it still doesn’t seem likely that we will get anywhere near that number. But there are whispers that at least some Republicans are currently very much up in the air regarding how they will vote.
On Friday, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy appeared on the “Morning Joe” program, and what he had to say is really shaking a lot of people up…
Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe program on Friday that he has spoken to GOP senators who are thinking of voting against Trump.
“It’s a small list on one hand,” Murphy said. “I don’t buy this secret ballot thing. If there was a secret ballot, there’d still be only a handful of them that would vote to impeach this guy.”
Up until now, most of us had assumed that Republicans in the Senate would unanimously stand behind Trump.
But according to Murphy, cracks are starting to form.
It is certainly possible that Murphy could be lying, but what purpose would he have for lying about these private conversations?
Of course, we definitely are not talking about a long list of potential turncoats. In fact, he openly admitted that only a handful of Republicans are thinking this way…
When pressed, Murphy said that as it stands he thinks there are a maximum of five Republican senators willing to turn on the president: “I think that’s probably right.”
This is not a major crisis for the Trump White House yet, but it definitely has got to be alarming for any cracks to be forming at all at this stage.
So who specifically are we talking about here?
Well, it has been suggested that Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, and Lisa Murkowski are all potential candidates to turn on Trump. In particular, Collins and Murkowski are essentially Democrats for all practical purposes, and so it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if either one of them turned on Trump. In fact, they both have voted against Trump in a number of high profile votes in recent years.
For Romney, this could be an opportunity for sweet revenge. Trump and Romney have exchanged insults for years, and Romney has already publicly referred to Trump’s dealings with Ukrainian officials as “troubling in the extreme”…
He has called Trump’s prodding of Ukrainian officials to investigate Biden “troubling in the extreme.” When the president also called on China to investigate Biden, Romney blasted the move as “wrong and appalling.”
Romney, 72, is seen as having the most freedom to vote to convict, as he made his concerns about the president’s character known during the 2016 primary, when he excoriated Trump as “a phony” and “a fraud” in a last ditch effort to deprive him of the nomination.
Needless to say, President Trump is deeply concerned about what could potentially happen in the weeks ahead, and he has been working very hard to court the support of his fellow Republicans in Congress…
Since the fall began, Trump has hosted more than 40 Republican senators, primarily for weekly lunches. The White House has also hosted Republican House members for weekends at Camp David, and Trump has brought lawmakers to several sporting events, including to the World Series in Washington and the Ultimate Fighting Championship in New York City.
But despite all of that effort, the outcome of the upcoming Senate trial is still surprisingly up in the air. Just check out the following numbers from Politico…
A tracker by Politico, which is evaluating the current position of each of the 100 senators, estimates that there are only 35 firm votes to remove Trump from office. A further 10 are down as probably, five maybe, 31 probably not, and 19 a firm no.
So why aren’t more Republicans in the Senate a “firm no”?
In fact, why aren’t virtually all of the Republicans in the Senate a “firm no”?
Something stinks about all of this. In Washington, far more goes on behind the scenes that most of us would dare to imagine. And a tremendous amount of pressure can be brought to bear on our representatives when very powerful people want them to vote a certain way.
I still think that it is extremely unlikely that pro-impeachment forces will get the 67 votes that they need in the Senate to remove Trump from office. And if it doesn’t look like there will be 67 votes, some Republicans that would be inclined to betray Trump may chicken out and decide that it isn’t worth the risk if the effort is not going to be successful.
But we definitely live in unprecedented times, and anything could still happen in the weeks ahead.
Top Democrats have indicated that they would like to have the full House vote on impeachment sometime around Christmas, and so it looks like we could actually see the Senate trial happen in January…
The Senate’s legislative calendar, released Wednesday, includes an ominous blank spot for the month of January, a reminder that the proceedings surrounding impeachment are fluid. Although the details for an impeachment trial remain unclear, Senate Republicans said they can guarantee at least one thing: Trump’s defense will be heard.
Needless to say, the mainstream media is going to be relentlessly covering these proceedings, and the whole world will be watching.
But the most fascinating action will actually be going on behind the scenes.
Pro-impeachment forces will be working night and day to try to get the 67 votes that they need, and if the potential vote count starts to creep close to that number, that is when things are going to start getting really interesting.
About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and anyway that you can share these articles with others is a great help.
Only lame-brains, Demonrat fools, and idiots will vote for impeachment. We finally have a President that acts in the best interest of the American CITIZEN and those mentioned above cannot stand it. Any aid to foreign entities should be released with the idea that we want American INTERESTS to be pursued. The days of imbeciles giving American taxpayer money to those that hate us is OVER.
You want treason, look at the video of Biden bragging about “Quid Pro Quo” for a billion in taxpayer’s hard-earned money.
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
The President needs to say screw the formalities of the Demonrat’s phony kangaroo court impeachment,declare martial law, round them all up and expose their many crimes against the American people, and humanity, then publicly hang every last one of them on the white house lawn. He would be backed by all patriots, most republicans and most of the military. We’ve been hearing for three years that all these corrupt evil scumbags are going to jail, but nothing ever happens. Would YOU agree to abide by the decision of a rigged court hearing to be crucified by tyrants who don’t even follow their own laws? Unless it’s all just part of the script…
Trump won’t be peached. Peach mint is a distraction.
Let’s see here…hmmmm…what else is going on?
Oh yeah, WaPo just FOIAed the SIGAR report. DoD officials have been lying for 18 years about Afghanistan. Lied about winning. Lied about progress. Lied about corruption. Lied about theft of funds meant for reconstruction. Lied, lied, lied. For 18 years and through both R and D administrations they kept lying to the public in order to keep the graft going. Thousands of young soldiers died for a corrupt US government. Tens, or hundreds, of thousands of innocent foreigners died for nothing.
Trump went over there Thanksgiving and gave his “Winning” speech. He lied. The Taliban control over half of Afghanistan. The only “winning” the US is doing over there is in the opium poppy trade.
Isn’t oversight a function of Congress? Why did this come out in the media first?
Why? Because both sides of the aisle are corrupt. They are all grifters. They protect each other because if one goes down, they all do. Greed and power drive these psychopaths. They all enrich themselves while posing as “public servants”. Only sheeptards think there is any difference between left or right. The US is a one party state. But with typical USA extravagance, they have two of them.
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“War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
————————–Gen.Smedley Butler——————————
If the Senate votes to impeach this president I can almost certainly predict that there would be a bloodbath revolution.
We then would have evidence that our democracy is dead.
I will leave it at That!
Thinking the military would support Trump no matter what is a stretch. You must remember that military officers are college graduates, having spent at least 4 years of liberal indoctrination, the leadership of the military is somewhat troubling.
That’s a good point. But most of the “grunts” aren’t liberally indoctrinated in colleges.I was in a band some years back with a guy that was a Major in the Army.A long term military career fellow. Nice guy, very down to earth.I asked him if it came down to disarming the American people, what percentage of the soldiers would actually follow orders in his opinion? He said at least 85% would refuse, possibly more.Many of them had already talked about it among themselves. And that some would shoot their superiors who were pro confiscation. However, it’s hard to say what would actually happen really.
One needs to remember that, during his 8 years in office, Obama completely revamped the upper of echelons of all military branches in the prog image. That fact should tell you all need to know about the nation’s “officer” corps.
Trump is a billionaire scumbag fraud of the worst type. I will vote for anyone Republican, Democrat or anyone else that will take his place.
The TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY established by Demonrats in the House of Representatives is about to “flush” to the Senate. People with brains in the Senate should reject this farce. Demonrats are only concerned with POWER. Senators, please use your thinker to decide properly.
“HIGH CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS”. Does anyone really believe the allegations meet this high bar?
If enough Republicans would somehow vote to remove Mr. Trump from office, it would be the end of the Republican Party. Mr. Trump could then go to scorched-earth war against both Republicans and Democrats as an independent Presidential candidate in 2020 and very possibly win. Once he is in office he can then start the mass arrests of the deep state fifthcols.
The best part of this warning is that the opposite will happen. Now, go back to enjoying the prosperity..
The best part of this warning is that the opposite will happen. Now, go back to enjoying the prosperity..