Republicans Are Low-Key Discussing Trump's Impeachment

Calls for Trump's impeachment from liberal politicians and commentators have been flowing in since before he was inaugurated. However, the tides may be beginning to turn, even on the Republican side of things. Republicans are reportedly finally talking about impeachment on the right side of the aisle, even if things are still pretty hush-hush at the moment. More than emoluments, potential collusion with Russia, and sharing classified intelligence information, it seems as though former FBI director Comey's memo about Trump trying to stop the Flynn investigation might have been the trigger.

Although Trump has proved impervious to criticism from Republicans in Congress — despite an absurd number of huge scandals in the first four months of his presidency — the Comey bombshell seems to be less defensible. Talk of impeachment is quiet so far, and it will likely be months before they'll take any definitive steps, but POLITICO's Playbook reports that Republicans on Capitol Hill are just getting sick of what the president is putting them through.

One step potentially in the right direction is that House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz sent a letter requesting that the FBI release all memos that Comey wrote regarding his exchanges with the president. While this could be indicative of any number of desires — including a drive to discredit The New York Times' report on the memo — this could also mean that the House might start taking their president's disregard for the law seriously.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is reportedly backing Chaffetz in his request, and it's looking likely that Comey will testify for both the House and the Senate. Information is going to come out, and the reports so far aren't looking so good for Trump. The president's alleged request that Comey halt the Flynn investigation could be taken as obstruction of justice, which is definitely an impeachable offense — just ask Richard Nixon.

It's a safe bet that Republicans in Washington will do everything in their power to prevent and impede the potential impeachment of their president, but this could be the beginning of a process that not even they can stop. If the administration's downward spiral continues until the 2018 midterms, there's at least a chance that the Democrats could seize control of both houses of Congress — and then impeachment would begin right away. It will have to be a pretty egregious flaunting of the laws to force Republicans to reckon with that possibility, but in many peoples' minds, that's already happened — and it sounds like even Trump's erstwhile supporters might be starting to appreciate that possibility.