US president predicts an ‘epic’ victory for his party in the November vote that will determine control of the House and Senate.
President Donald Trump has warned Republicans in the United States House of Representatives that, if the party fails to win a majority in November’s midterm elections, he will get impeached.
Speaking to legislators at a Republican retreat in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Trump stressed the importance of keeping control of the chamber, where his party has a razor-thin majority.
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“You’ve got to win the midterms because, if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just going to be — I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” the US president said. “I’ll be impeached.”
The House can impeach the president and other officials for misconduct, including “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors”. An impeached president would then stand trial in the Senate, which can convict and remove him from office with a two-thirds vote.
All 435 House seats will be up for grabs in November as well as 33 positions in the Senate.
House members are elected in districts drawn by the states in accordance with the size of their populations. Senators are elected in state-wide elections.
Trump has been pushing Republican-controlled states to pass new congressional district maps that would favour the right-wing party — a strategy known as gerrymandering, which critics say is inherently undemocratic.
Texas, Missouri and North Carolina have passed redistricting to boost Republican candidates. Democrats have responded with their own gerrymandering in California, which was approved through a ballot initiative.
Trump heads into the midterm elections with an approval rating of around 42 to 45 percent, according to various polls.
With the economy starting to show signs of stagnation and the recent US military action to abduct Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro proving unpopular, Democrats may capitalise on the discontent to win back control of Congress.
Trump nevertheless appeared optimistic about his party’s chances on Tuesday. “We’re going to make history and break records with the epic midterm victory that we’re going to pull off,” he said.
Still, he expressed bewilderment at why Republicans do not have more support.
“I wish you could explain to me what the hell is going on with the mind of the public, because we have the right policy,” Trump said. “They [Democrats] have horrible policy. They do stick together. They’re violent. They’re vicious.”
Over the past year, some Democrats have called for impeaching Trump over alleged misconduct, pointing to incidents like June’s military strikes against Iran, which were not authorised by Congress. But with the left-wing party in the minority, no impeachment proposals have advanced.
Trump was impeached twice during his first term. The first instance came in 2019, when he was accused of abuse of power for allegedly using US aid to Ukraine as leverage to push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate former US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
The second impeachment came in 2021, after Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6 of that year. Trump was accused of inciting an insurrection, after he spread false claims about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost.
The Senate acquitted Trump both times. In the 2021 trial, 57 senators found him guilty after he had left office, but the result fell short of the 67 votes required for a conviction.
Had Trump been convicted, he would not have been able to run again in 2024.
No US president has ever been removed from office by the Senate. Richard Nixon resigned from the White House over the Watergate scandal in 1974 before a vote was taken on his impeachment.
In more recent times, Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying under oath about having sexual relations with a White House intern. The Senate also acquitted him.