‘Pence would be president by noon’: Morning Joe claims GOPers would dump Trump in a minute in a secret impeachment vote

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough believes the Senate would convict President Donald Trump by an overwhelming margin today if the vote were held in secret.

Former Sen. Jeff Flake said late last month that "at least 35" Republicans would vote to impeach Trump if the vote were secret, but the "Morning Joe" host and analyst Mike Barnicle agreed that number is much higher as public support grows for removing the president.

"I find it very interesting, very interesting that senators are being a little more careful in not attacking Mitt Romney," Scarborough said, referring to the Utah Republican who's been increasingly critical of the president. "Senators aren't rushing to Donald Trump's side. They don't know, for the first time, how this is going to play out. They're not so sure, for the first time, that Donald Trump can shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and get away with it."

"In fact," he added, "they're thinking, 'This guy may be going down, I'm going to protect my political career because Trump's not going to make it.'"

Barnicle said lawmakers recently returned from a recess, where they spoke with their constituents back home, and found that voters are as sick of the president as they are.

"It's a crazy, crazy presidency," Barnicle said. "I think Republican senators are going to be a dominant force in this election process because more and more of them -- listen, Joe, you know, we all know, that privately in the cloakroom they speak very disparagingly of him, and if there was a secret ballot in the United States Senate, I think Trump would lose 90-10, maybe."

Scarborough agreed.

"Mike, if there were a secret ballot in the Senate this morning, Mike Pence would be president by noon," Scarborough said.