Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) believes that if former President Donald Trump is convicted of one or more of the felony charges he faces and is elected back to the White House, an impeachment would begin immediately, with Republican senators voting to convict.
Buck made the prediction on CNN International’s State of the Race on Friday, saying he hopes “the primary voters take that into account” when selecting a Republican presidential nominee in 2024.
TRUMP’S BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT COULD ALSO FUEL HIS 2024 DEFEAT
“Well, here’s the real issue from my perspective, and that is that impeachment requires a high crime or misdemeanor. If Donald Trump is a convicted felon, the day he shows up to Congress, you can imagine the impeachment — legitimate impeachment inquiries and motions that are going to be made,” Buck said. “And so I think it’s a real problem having someone that has … and the impeachment, the crimes aren’t just crimes that have nothing to do with politics or his presidency. They are integrally involved with how he operated the White House and what he did after he lost an election.”
“I think that is really a cause for concern. I think the Republican Party and I hope the primary voters take that into account. I don’t know that the party can take action as much as the voters can take action,” he added.
Buck has been a frequent critic of Trump, citing GOP narratives around the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as a reason for him not running for reelection in 2024.
CNN host Kasie Hunt then asked Buck if he believed there would be enough Republicans voting in favor of impeaching and convicting Trump if he is a convicted felon, to which Buck responded that he thinks there would be enough members of the Senate GOP voting in favor.
“There would have to be some Republicans in the Senate that have to support it, and constitutionally, if he is convicted of a felony and the appeals process has gone through its process and he is the sitting president, I think you will see Republicans in the Senate convict him on the impeachment,” Buck said.
When Hunt pushed back on Buck’s prediction, citing the acquittal of Trump by the Senate in 2021 on charges related to Jan. 6, the Colorado Republican contended that the former president was not a convicted felon then and the process was rushed.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“He has never been a convicted felon. The problem with the Jan. 6 impeachment was it came on the heels of the action. There was no investigation; the chief justice [of the Supreme Court] didn’t even sit in the Senate and preside over the proceedings because he was no longer president. The Constitution says you impeach a president, not a former president. And so I think there were a lot of other issues involved in that particular impeachment,” he said.
Trump survived his second impeachment in 2021, with the Senate voting 57-43 in favor of convicting the former president, falling short of the required two-thirds majority to disqualify him from running for president again.
