News / Politics

Pence 'would be president by noon' if GOP senators could cast secret ballots: Ex-Congressman

Tuesday, 22 October 2019 7:08 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 22 October 2019 7:24 PM ]

US Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump on October 18, 2019 in Washington, DC. during a video conference with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch in space. (Photo by AFP)

US Vice President Mike Pence "would be president by noon" if Republican senators could vote in secret impeachment ballots, according to MSNBC co-host Joe Scarborough, who is a former congressman from Florida.

Scarborough's comments on Tuesday came amid reports of growing support for the impeachment of US President Donald Trump in the wake of a recent whistleblower complaint alleging that he asked Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 presidential election..

During a discussion about Trump's impeachment on "Morning Joe" with panelist Mike Barnicle, Scarborough said not only Democrats, but also Republicans speak disparagingly of Trump.

“We all know that privately in the cloakroom they speak very disparagingly of him," Barnicle said, adding,"if there was a secret ballot in the United States Senate, I think Trump would lose 90-10 maybe."

"If there were a secret ballot in the Senate this morning, Mike Pence would be president by noon," Scarborough said, insisting, "It is that clear -- they want Trump out."

Support for impeaching Trump and removing him from office reached an all-time high on Tuesday with fifty percent of respondents to a CNN poll saying they wanted Trump out

On Tuesday morning, Trump compared the impeachment inquiry to a “lynching,” prompting immediate blowback from lawmakers.

PressTV-Trump compares impeachment inquiry to 'lynching'

Donald Trump has compared the ongoing impeachment inquiry into him to a “lynching."

Lawmakers condemned Trump's use of the racially-loaded word "lynching" in discussing the impeachment process.

Trump is a “racist and unfit to serve,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee.

House Majority Whip Jim 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.”

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), a civil rights activist who founded a chapter of the Black Panthers in the 1960s, said Trump should delete the tweet.

"You think this impeachment is a LYNCHING? What the hell is wrong with you?" the congressman tweeted. "Do you know how many people who look like me have been lynched, since the inception of this country, by people who look like you. Delete this tweet.”

Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, blasted Trump for “comparing a constitutional process to the PREVALENT and SYSTEMATIC brutal torture of people in THIS COUNTRY that looked like me?"