Why impeachment will help remove Trump's worst officials: NYT columnist

It is imperative that Democrats launch a third impeachment of President Donald Trump after the midterms, according to one prominent New York Times columnist, and while it might not actually be enough to remove him from power, it might be enough to remove some of his worst officials.

NYT columnist and outspoken liberal commentator Jamelle Bouie outlined the case for another Trump impeachment in his latest "Takes" video, shared to YouTube. In it, he argued that the president's ongoing scheme to meddle with the midterms by imposing new rules on mail-in voting is unlikely to have much of an actual effect on the results, instead serving as a way to inject "chaos" into the aftermath and give Republicans grounds on which to falsely claim that certain Democratic victories are illegitimate.

However that process shakes out, Bouie argued, the scheme nevertheless represents a "conspiracy" to subvert the Constitution, and must be met with a new impeachment push if and when Democrats reclaim congressional majorities in the midterms, even if it would be difficult or impossible to actually remove Trump from office by doing so.

"The president is openly pursuing a conspiracy against the Constitution of the United States," Bouie explained. "Part of an ongoing, at this point what, 18-19 month assault on the Constitution of the United States, 20-month assault. You can't just let that lie. Can't take the position that because impeachment isn't going to result in removal, therefore we can't do anything about it. Therefore, we just have to leave that tool in the toolbox. No.

He continued: "Even if removal isn't going to happen, even if the final outcome, which is that nothing specifically happens to Trump, is in stone because of the high bar for removal under the Constitution, it's still important to engage in an impeachment trial to show the public that the president of the United States is engaged in an open conspiracy against their rights, against the American Republic. That is what's happening. It won't be a waste of time."

While Trump might be mostly safe from removal via impeachment, Bouie added that many of his most controversial and despised administration officials might not be, suggesting that there could very well be enough Republican support in Congress to remove the likes of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Steven Miller.

"And I'll say that there are other figures in the administration that you probably could remove through impeachment," Bouie said. "Russell Vought, Pete Hegseth, Steven Miller: as executive branch officials, they can be impeached. And I bet you would find some Republicans who wanted to remove them."

Impeachment of Executive Branch officials can pass the House of Representatives with a simple majority. However, to remove the impeached official from office, it would require two-thirds of the Senate, 67 votes, to pass.