President Donald Trump's conduct in the Ukraine investigation might not have been perfectly done, but it did not justify impeachment, Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., told Newsmax TV on Monday.
"Not every president has been an angel and a saint, but [impeachment] is the ultimate weapon," King told Monday's "Greg Kelly Reports." "You don't undo an election, you don't bring down the government, unless it's serious . . . a high crime."
King said he believes Trump was "fully entitled" to ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate the role of former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, in a Ukrainian gas company — though he "could have done it in a safer way."
Still, King said, Democrats appear biased in their pursuit of Trump, and intent only in overturning an election not to their liking.
"There are some people who are so obsessed with President Trump that they could pass a lie detector test; they believe everything bad about him," he said. "They will convince you he's a Russian spy. Every bad rumor that comes out, they agree with."
But King said "a number" of Democrats have told him privately they would have preferred censure or a resolution criticizing Trump's actions over impeachment.
As for rumors many Republicans secretly hate Trump and would have voted to impeach if they could have cast anonymous ballots, King called such talk nonsense.
"There's people . . . in the House, that I know who are not necessarily crazy about President Trump, but if that'd been an open ballot, a secret ballot, it wouldn't have mattered, they still felt the charges against him did warrant impeachment," King told Kelly. "Not that everyone loves him. But they do feel he's doing a decent job, and they feel the tactics by the Democrats here have been reprehensible and that this would set a terrible precedent if the president was ever removed for this."
King said he sees no chance of Democrats garnering enough votes to oust Trump after the Senate trial.
"All the evidence that has to be known is known. It's out there. There's no way there can be 67 votes in the Senate. I don't think they're going to get 50 votes in the Senate," he said. "So, right now, unless something totally out of the blue occurs, the president is not going to be removed from office."
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