What Would It Actually Take to Impeach Trump?

In an echo of Richard Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre in 1973, President Trump abruptly fires FBI Director James Comey. Then, in a television interview, Trump fuels cover-up allegations by linking the ouster of Comey to a pending investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Trump then warns Comey not to leak because there may be White House “tapes” of their meetings.

For excitable Democrats, it was enough to leap from Watergate to talk of impeachment. “We’re actually pretty close to considering impeachment,” Kentucky Democratic Representative John Yarmuth told a home-state television station after Comey’s firing. In fact, impeachment proceedings probably aren’t imminent. Republican leadership in the House and Senate will see to that. But we’re a big step closer after credible reports indicate that in February Trump asked Comey to drop an FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.