Impeachment Won't Oust Trump and Pence. Here's What Will

There's a chance that, if the Democrats stop being really stupid, and start representing their constituents instead of corporations and the wealthy, both Donald Trump and Mike Pence could have their asses thrown out of Washington D.C.. But impeachment won't Be the way it gets done.

If the Dems get their sh*t together there's a very good chance that they will take back the House and the senate. In the past when party's president has a support rating of less than fifty percent, the president's party loses an average of 36 seats, as Evan Osnos reports in his New Yorker article, HOW TRUMP COULD GET FIRED

"Since 1946, whenever a President has had an approval rating above fifty per cent, his party has lost an average of fourteen seats in the midterms, according to Gallup; whenever the rating has been below fifty per cent, the average loss soars to thirty-six seats.

If the Dems pull it off, they will probably successfully impeach Trump and possibly Mike Pence. But impeachment didn't do much to Bill Clinton. He was acquitted in the senate because it takes a two thirds vote to convict. I don't think that will happen, even if the Dems win big.

So, we'll have a situation where Trump is laughing at the impeachment.

But that doesn't mean it'll be impossible to get rid of Trump and Pence. Impeachment wasn't the way that Nixon was removed. He resigned. That's what will have to happen with Trump and Pence.

How will they be persuaded to resign? They'll be given a choice between prosecution for crimes, prosecution that is likely to put them in jail, or they will be allowed to resign.

The way to do that is for the Democrats, after January , 2019, when they control the House and the Senate, to open up independent investigations with special prosecutors.

One of the first things they should do is to pass a version of the bill Ron Wyden offered in 2016,S.2979 - Presidential Tax Transparency Act. It requires presidential candidates to release their taxes, and if they don't the IRS is required to release them.

But it should include the requirement that the sitting president also be required to release his taxes, and if he doesn't, that the Internal Revenue Service be required to release them.

I think even Republicans may have to let that pass. Polls show that 74% of Americans want Trump to reveal his taxes and even 64% of Republicans want Trump to publicly release his taxes.

Getting Trump's taxes will set a lot in motion. By February 2019 I expect Trump will have lied and engaged in enough corruption that he will have committed crimes. Pence will very likely, out of loyalty, aid and abet him.

A special prosecutor should be able to deliver both their heads. And while the Dems are at it, they should be able to do the same to Jeff Sessions. Getting rid of him, and with a Democratic Majority in the Senate, Trump will not be able to appoint another partisan with character and values as impaired as Sessions'. I expect that Trump and Sessions will have disgusted patriotic members of the intelligence services enough so they will happily help the hearings and special prosecutors.

That's the way it needs to go, the way it very possibly will go. Impeachment will get things started, but hearings and independent prosecutors will have to finish the job.