Eric Swalwell Appears to Shift Tone on Impeachment | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's note: This informational nugget was sent to me by Ben Shapiro, who represents the Daily Wire, and since this is one of the most topical news events, it should be published on BCN.

The author of this post is Ryan Saavedra.

    Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) appeared to shift his stance on impeaching President Donald Trump on Tuesday after having repeatedly called for his impeachment over the past several months.

    The failed Democratic presidential candidate - whose much-maligned campaign was the first to drop of the Democratic primary after making far-left gun control measures the central focus of his campaign - made the apparent gradual shift in his stance when he was questioned by CNN's Manu Raju.

    "So, you haven't made the decision yet about whether the president should be impeached?" Raju asked.

    Swalwell answered, "No, I think it's important that we reserve judgement."

    The Daily Caller noted that Swalwell's comments came after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff "declined to say whether or not he supports impeaching Trump and his removal from office by the Senate."

    A simple search of Swalwell's Twitter account shows that he has repeatedly called for impeaching the president and has made numerous statements advocating for moving in the direction of impeachment.

    On June 13, 2019, Swalwell called for impeachment on his personal and congressional Twitter accounts.

    "After hearing the president say, flat-out, that he would accept a foreign power's offer of dirt on an electoral competitor and probably not inform the FBI of such an effort, I believe that Congress must pursue impeachment," Swalwell tweeted on his personal account.

    Swalwell tweeted from his congressional account: "Congress has no choice: we must begin an impeachment inquiry against @realDonaldTrump. He has invited the Russians to again sabotage our elections. And he has obstructed (& obstructs) justice. Time to be held accountable. Our democracy is worth saving."

    On November 17, 2019, Swalwell tweeted from his personal account: "I am one of them. I called for impeachment the day @realDonaldTrump told @GStephanopoulos he would again take help from a foreign government to win an election. That was June. Little did any of us know he was already trying to do that with Ukraine."

    Numerous Democrats have started to caution that impeaching Trump may backfire on them politically.

    Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) warned his party on CNN this week that if the Democrats impeach Trump that "the political consequences may not be very good for the Democrats."

    "I will guarantee you the Republican Party would not nominate Mike Pence to succeed him," Yarmuth said. "They would nominate someone like Nikki Haley who would be much more difficult for Democrats to defeat."

    Democrat Congressman Jefferson Van Drew said in an interview this week that he opposed impeachment because "to some folks, that's reminiscent of what was done to kings and queens many years ago. Everything our country doesn't stand for."

    Late last month, Democrat Rep. Brenda Lawrence (MI) appeared to shift her stance on impeachment, saying that censuring the president would be better than impeaching him.

    "You can censure, you don't have to remove the president," Lawrence said. "We are so close to an election. I will tell you, sitting here, knowing how divided this country is, I don't see the value of kicking him out of office, but I do see the value of putting down a marker saying his behavior is not acceptable."