MSNBC co-host Joe Scarborough said Tuesday that Vice President Pence “would be president by noon” if Republican senators could cast impeachment ballots in secret.
His comments came during a discussion about impeachment on “Morning Joe” with panelist Mike Barnicle.
{mosads}“We all know that privately in the cloakroom they speak very disparagingly of him,” Barnicle said of Trump. “And if there was a secret ballot in the United States Senate, I think Trump would lose 90-10 maybe.”
Scarborough added, “If there were a secret ballot in the Senate this morning, Mike Pence would be president by noon.”
“It is that clear: They want Trump out, they want Mike Pence in, they want to return to conservative principles, they want a return to conservative issues.”
If the House votes to impeach Trump, a trial would be held in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority.
Support for impeaching Trump and removing him from office reached an all-time high in a CNN poll released Tuesday. Fifty percent of respondents said they want Trump to be impeached and removed, compared with 43 percent who disagreed. Seven percent were undecided.
Later Tuesday morning, Trump compared the impeachment inquiry to a “lynching,” prompting immediate blowback from Democrats.
“So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans WIN the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights,” Trump tweeted. “All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!”
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said, “That is one word that no president ought to apply to himself.”
“I’m a product of the South,” he added. “I know the history of that word. That is a word that we ought to be very, very careful about using.”