Clearly worried about the impact of corruption scandals roiling the Republican party, which so far include Michael Cohen's guilty plea, Paul Manafort's conviction on tax fraud and other charges, and the indictments of Duncan Hunter Jr. and Chris Collins, GOP strategist Michael Caputo told MSNBC's Hallie Jackson that the party risked losing the House. This could have grave consequences for President Trump, he added, because "the Democrats' priority number one is to impeach the president."
Caputo was so concerned about the scandals that he advised his party "to make this election about impeachment", in the hopes that the base would turn out to protect the president. "The timing here is terrible," he said. "These indictments have come down when there's no time to replace Duncan Hunter or Chris Collins on the ballot."
Noting that both seats "are reliably red", Caputo fretted that "both of them could go blue."
Jackson asked Caputo if he was worried about impeachment, highlighting recent statements from leaders like Dick Durbin indicating that perhaps "Democrats on Capitol Hill are shying away from that."
Caputo admitted that he is in fact quite worried about the prospect, saying "The Democrats believe right now they have, in this allegation against the president made by Michael Cohen, the means to do so. I think if the president got ticketed for jaywalking across Pennsylvania Avenue, they would use that as well."
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