Trump ‘must be impeached’: Conservative columnist says Mueller documented ‘unprecedented series of impeachable offenses’

Congress has a "duty" to impeach President Donald Trump following the public release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report, a conservative columnist explained in New York magazine.

After reading the report, Andrew Sullivan concluded Congress must "impeach Trump now."

"All of this is an unprecedented series of impeachable offenses. It is a textbook definition of 'high crimes and misdemeanors.' It is the story of a president assaulting the rule of law, attempting to manipulate the justice system, dangling pardons to induce perjury, and reflexively putting his own personal interests — or simply ego — before any interest of the country as a whole," Sullivan wrote.

"When a president openly threatens the integrity of the justice system, and says he has unlimited power to do so in the future, he not only can be impeached, he must be impeached," he argued.

Sullivan addressed some of the arguments raised against impeachment.

"I worry about pushing Trump into outright insanity. And I worry that the contemporary GOP is all too happy to create a presidency — as long as it’s theirs — beyond the rule of law. Even though no previous impeachment process has ever engaged in the kind of assault on our entire system of government that we see now before us, the GOP will protect their cult leader," he acknowledged.

However, Sullivan flipped the question on its head.

"There will never be enough Republican votes to convict Trump in the Senate. But after this report’s summary and backup for what we have been witnessing in public for two years now, there is another consideration. What are the consequences of not impeaching?" he wondered.

"We have a president who is an instinctual criminal and liar, who threatens the integrity of our justice system and of our democratic elections, who is incapable of understanding the rule of law, backed by an attorney general who just outright distorted the findings of the special counsel," Sullivan noted.

"To refuse to use the one weapon the Founders gave us to remove such a character from office is more than cowardice. It is complicity," he charged. "It is a surrender to forces which aim to make the world safe for authoritarianism."

"This disgusting man is not just a cancer in the presidency. His presidency is a cancer in our Constitution and way of life. How long do we let this metastasize even further? How long before we take a stand?" he asked.

Read the full column.