Maxine Waters Calls For Trump's Impeachment

It's clear that California representative Maxine Waters is not trying to tamp down the expectations surrounding the House investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Early Tuesday morning, less than 24 hours after FBI director James Comey publicly confirmed the bureau's investigation for the first time, the 13-term representative from South Central Los Angeles took to Twitter with a firm and startling message. Namely, Waters said to "get ready for impeachment," publicly raising the ever-loaded I-word just two months into the Trump presidency.

Waters isn't the first Democrat to raise the idea of Trump not making it through his first term. No less than Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein hinted at the same possibility earlier this week, remarking, "I think he'll get himself out" when asked by a constituent whether he could be impeached.

That's a far cry from what Waters tweeted Tuesday, however. While Feinstein seemed to suggest that Trump might resign under the mounting pressure of an investigation, Waters ― the ranking member of the House finance committee ― was more blunt. Her tweet was all of four words long, making it clear that she's got the impeachment of President Donald Trump on her mind.

This isn't the first time Waters has suggested impeachment, and she's never been shy about it. Earlier this week, Waters spoke with MSNBC's Joy-Ann Reid and made much the same case. Voicing confidence that evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia would come to light in due time ― although no such evidence has been revealed yet, and former director of national intelligence James Clapper says he saw none prior to his tenure ending in January ― Waters told Reid that such findings would set the stage for impeachment.

I don't think, when the truth comes out, that even the right-wing conservatives who are defending Trump at this point are going to be able to stand with him. They claim to be patriots, and they claim that they are more patriotic than a lot of other people. We're gonna see who the real patriots are, when we unveil this collusion that I believe is there, and I think in the final analysis, they're gonna have to move away from him. And we will see that he will be in a position where he will meet the standards and the criteria for high crimes and misdemeanors, and I maintain that's where impeachment comes in.

Needless to say, she seems to be looking pretty far ahead. It remains unclear whether any of the alleged or confirmed ties between Trump campaign officials and members of the Russian government were even criminal, pending the FBI's investigation, let alone whether the president himself would be implicated in such a way as to spur an impeachment. A president has only been impeached twice in American history ― the cases of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton (Richard Nixon preemptively resigned to avoid impeachment). Waters' candor, however, makes it pretty clear that she's paying the idea some serious thought, and she's probably not alone among Democrats on Capitol Hill.