Trump may avoid impeachment if he stops Mussolini act – man who predicted 9 straight elections

Allan Lichtman is a famous American political analyst and professor who has correctly predicted the winner of the popular vote in every presidential election since 1984. In April, Lichtman published his new book entitled ‘The Case for Impeachment’ in which he laid out the reasons why the Congress could remove US President Donald Trump from the Oval Office.

Lichtman told RT he believes the House may impeach Trump, even on the basis of information available at the moment, and should launch an impeachment inquiry immediately.

“It is urgent that the US House of Representatives, which has sole responsibility for impeachment, launch an impeachment investigation. Now we do have a special counsel investigation, but a special counsel is not an impeachment investigator. During Watergate, you had a special prosecutor investigation, you had a special Senate committee investigation and you had an impeachment investigation, or inquiry by the US House judiciary committee. That’s what lacking right now. And there are certainly a plenty of things to investigate.”

Impeachment is not a legal process, Lichtman explained, adding that the impeachment proceeds from the misconduct of public men, or in other words from the abuse or violation of some public trust.

Lichtman said that based just on what is publicly known, “there’s certainly a very strong case for alleged obstruction of justice – I would say at least as strong as the case for obstruction of justice against Bill Clinton for which almost every Republican in the House voted an article of impeachment and of course Trump’s alleged obstruction is on a much more serious matter.”

“I was very surprised by the blatant obstruction of justice. I did not expect an American president to ask for personal loyalty from an FBI head or to ask an FBI head to quash an investigation, and then to fire the head of the FBI and then just admit it openly, that he was firing [him] because he was worried about the Russian investigation,” the analyst said.

In his book, Lichtman dedicated a special section to the steps – eight of them – that in his opinion Trump should take to avoid impeachment.

“If he follows the advice in that chapter – things like respecting the separation of powers and the checks and balances, and cutting the Mussolini-[like] dictatorial acts, truly divesting himself from all his holdings, then it might be possible, but I don’t see the president moving in that direction,” he said.

The only thing that Trump seems to have followed from the suggested list to date is firing chief strategist Steve Bannon, Lichtman added.

Asked about the timing for the possible launch of impeachment procedure, Lichtman said the “truth is that the wheels of American government are moving slowly,” referring to the Watergate scandal that started in 1972, but the House judiciary committee voted articles of impeachment that led to President Nixon’s resignation only two years later.

“As we approach the election of 2018, when every member of the US House is up for re-election, if they feel that Donald Trump is a drag on their political prospects – and that of course is what’s most important to them – you might get enough defection of Republicans, you need about two dozen, about 10% of Republicans in the House to join with Democrats for majority vote on an impeachment inquiry,” he said.

“And of course – it’s still a long shot, but not impossible that Democrats retake the House, then I think we might see a very quick proceeding to an impeachment inquiry when the new House convenes at the beginning of 2019.”