The former chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration warned Democrats that they will lose the 2020 election if they refuse to impeach President Donald Trump following the latest foreign election interference scandal with Ukraine.
Painter, the vice-chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), was interviewed by Ari Melber on MSNBC's "The Beat" on Monday.
"Richard Painter, what is your view of these reports of Donald Trump’s attempted collusion with Ukraine to go after Biden. If this alone were the only thing on the table, would you view it as an abuse of power, potentially impeachable on its own," Melber asked.
"First, there's absolutely no evidence that Vice President Biden and his son have contributed to the corruption in the Ukraine," Painter said. "What the president said was just false."
"Second, this is an impeachable offense, turning the powers of a foreign government against a candidate in the United States who is a political rival of Donald Trump, this in and of itself is impeachable. This president has committed multiple high crimes and misdemeanors and what is happening when the House refuses to impeach him, he continues to do more and more of it," he explained. "That is what is happening."
Painter demanded Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) lead her caucus to impeach Trump.
"If Speaker Pelosi doesn’t have the courage to impeach him, he’s going to keep on doing it," Painter continued. "The other thing he’s going to do is stand up in the election in 2020, look at his opponent and say 'Look, I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not illegal. If it were illegal, a Democratically-controlled House of Representatives would have impeached me."
"He is getting a pass from this Congress. It’s critically important that the House not only start impeachment investigations formally but that they vote out Articles of Impeachment, all of the evidence is already there. We don’t need more to impeach this president and if they don’t do it, I think the Democrats are going to lose in 2020 -- and probably deserve to lose."
Watch:
