Professor Allan Lichtman has quite a reputation in the political sphere — he’s correctly predicted the outcome for every single election since 1984, including Donald Trump’s unlikely rise to the presidency in 2016.
While many Trump supporters are turning to Lichtman for comfort in 2020, they’re going to be quite disappointed to know that Lichtman has been making a different prediction – that Trump will be impeached by a Republican Congress. When asked what the odds were, Lichtman said:
I see grounds for it, as an observer, but I don’t see the politics of it.”
According to Lichtman, the one thing that could change everything would come from Special Counsel Robert Mueller — which is looking more and more likely. He said:
The politics of it is really complicated. I don’t think this is going to develop organically in Congress, and so the critical component has to come from the special counsel. One scenario in which the Republicans could act is if pressure built after the special counsel comes back in with something truly shocking like money laundering or obstruction of justice.”
Lichtman stated that Republicans are aware that defending Trump is an extremely risky business and it might hurt them in November — forcing them to break from the president. In a piece for USA Today, Lichtman said:
In the early stages of his presidency, Trump has already begun matching the abuses of Nixon.”
He believes that history could repeat itself.
The House can do whatever it wants and impeachment could get started in any fashion whatsoever, but that’s the Nixon model. And I think there already is as strong or stronger case for obstruction of justice than there was in the one charge against Clinton.”
Lichtman also made similar claims on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, stating that “there’s as strong a case of obstruction of justice as there was against Bill Clinton on a vastly more important matter than a blue dress. Remember, virtually every Republican voted for an obstruction article against Bill Clinton.” Speaking about Trump’s Russia scandal, the scholar said:
I believe we have the tip of the iceberg of what the special counsel knows about the relationship between Trump and the Trump team and the Russians. There’s a fair chance that the reason they were covering up all of those calls from then to be national security adviser with the Russians was to cover up a possible quid pro quo, the Russians will help us and in turn we’ll ease those sanctions. Why else make those calls and why else lie about them?
I think Mueller — and this is my prediction — is going to come up with findings that are going to shock the country, not only involve conspiracy with Russia but could involve serious financial crimes.”
Coming from a man who has been so tuned into politics for the last few decades, this should certainly terrify Trump and the GOP.
Featured image via screen capture
