Trump impeachment considered 'inevitable' by growing number of House Democrats, congressman says

Many have so far resisted calls to impeach Republican president, suggesting effort is politically risky

(REUTERS)

A senior Democrat in the House has suggested increasing numbers of his colleagues expect Donald Trump to be impeached.

Many in the party have resisted calls for proceedings to be initiated, with many suggesting that doing so would aid the president's repeated and unsubstantiated claims that he is the victim of a "deep state" conspiracy.

But John Yarmuth, chairman of the House budget committee, said: “I think what we have … is we have a situation in which I think a growing majority of our caucus believes that impeachment is going to be inevitable.

Speaking to CNN, he continued: "But they also believe that we need to pursue the investigations that are going on to make sure that certain conduct of the administration and the president that they need to be held accountable for is discovered"

The comment comes as Democrats have become increasingly frustrated with the White House, which on Tuesday instructed former White House counsel Don McGahn to defy a congressional subpoena to give evidence.

In response, top Democrats threatened further action and then issued two more subpoenas for two top former White House aides.

Mr McGahn was a key witness in the investigation conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller, who looked into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. His testimony to that investigation indicated Mr Trump repeatedly asked him and others to subvert or end the investigation.

Mr Yarmuth is far from the only Democrat in the House who has acknowledged that impeachment is a popular idea among those in his party.

House whip James Clyburn told the same CNN programme: “The vast majority [of House Democrats] would, in fact, support impeachment — just not now.

"The issue now is whether or not that is something that should be done today or tomorrow, or whether or not we go through a process by which we build a foundation upon which to successfully impeach the president. So that’s where we are.”

It comes after influential Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the initiation of impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump was "entirely appropriate".