By Zachary Stieber
Republicans who back the impeachment of President Donald Trump will likely be voted out of office, a Trump campaign adviser said Wednesday.
“If you’re a Republican House member, or you’re a Republican senator, I don’t know how else to say this: you are probably self-selecting to end your political future if you vote for the impeachment of President Trump,” Jason Miller, chief strategist for the Trump campaign, said on “War Room.”
Hours later, 10 Republican representatives joined Democrats in impeaching Trump for alleged incitement of insurrection. Among them was Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the House Conference chair, who said the Capital breach last week was Trump’s fault.
Miller said Trump’s team and voters “have to dig in and we have to start fighting back.” Elected officials, he said, “understand their own elections,” and Trump voters “will hold anyone who votes for impeachment accountable.”
Cheney’s office hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
Democrats are angling to make Trump the first president to be convicted on an article of impeachment in U.S. history, after making him the first president to be impeached twice. One reason, leaders have said, is ensuring he can never again hold public office.
Miller said surveys the campaign ran showed Republican voters want Trump to run again in 2024.
“Not only are the grassroots with President Trump, the grassroots have made it clear that they will not support these feckless cowards if they do not stand with President Trump on this. President Trump is who both Republicans and Trump supporters want to come back in 2024,” he said.
The Senate will in the coming weeks hold an impeachment trial. Seventeen Republicans would need to vote to convict Trump, or else he will be acquitted. The top Republican in the body, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), revealed Wednesday a willingness to convict Trump, depending on the case House Democrats present during the trial.
If Trump is convicted, the GOP will be finished, Miller charged. “This will be it for the Republican Party. They will tear the Republican Party apart,” he said.
The push is part of an effort to destroy populism, he added, along with trying to strip Trump of Secret Service protection and prevent him from having a presidential library.
“They want to literally control, alt, delete on the entire presidency of Donald J. Trump and all 75 million of his supporters,” he said.
