一名众议院民主党人警告说，解除唐纳德·特朗普总统的职务可能会导致他被民主党人认为很难击败的“像妮基·黑利一样”的人取代
民主党众议员约翰·亚尔穆斯周一在接受美国有线电视新闻网采访时表示，副总统迈克·彭斯不是接替特朗普的明显人选如果他被弹劾并被免职。
亚尔穆斯说:“我确实认为解除他的职务是正确的——我相信他对这个国家和我们的民主来说是一个迫在眉睫的危险，但我是说这样做的政治后果可能对民主党人不是很好。”他进一步解释了他最初的评论小山11月。
“如果我们解除他的职务，我保证共和党不会提名迈克·彭斯接替他。
“他们会提名像[前联合国大使]妮基·黑利这样的人，而民主党人更难击败他。但是，我也不认为这与政治有关，我也不认为我们应该考虑政治。我只是认为这可能是糟糕的政治，”他补充道。
亚尔穆斯发表上述评论之际，众议院情报委员会正准备在周二晚上发布弹劾报告，调查将移交给司法委员会，司法委员会第一次听证会定于周三举行。
然而，白宫宣布不会参加周三的听证会，有线电视新闻网报道总统的白宫法律顾问帕特·西波隆写信给司法委员会主席杰罗德·纳德勒说:“我们不能被公平地期望参加听证会，因为证人尚未被提名，而且司法委员会是否会通过额外的听证会为总统提供公平的程序还不清楚。
“更重要的是，邀请法学教授参加学术讨论并不能为总统提供任何公平的程序。因此，在目前情况下，我们不打算参加你星期三的听证会，”信中补充说。
这份报告是弹劾调查初始阶段几个月来收集信息的结果，是由一份举报者报告引发的，该报告引起了人们对特朗普和乌克兰总统沃洛迪米尔·泽兰斯基(Volodymyr Zelenskiy)7月份一次电话的担忧。
在电话中，特朗普被指控向泽兰斯基施压，要求他调查他的政治对手，据称他拒绝向该国提供援助，并暗示有可能访问白宫，以激励此类调查。
然而，特朗普否认电话中有任何压力或交换条件，并否认弹劾调查是“政治迫害”
DEMOCRAT SAYS REMOVING TRUMP FROM OFFICE MAY SEE HIM SUCCEEDED BY NIKKI HALEY, WHO WOULD BE 'DIFFICULT' TO BEAT
A House Democrat has warned that removing President Donald Trump from office may result in him being replaced by someone the Democrats would find it harder to beat "like Nikki Haley."
Speaking in an interview with CNN on Monday, Democrat Rep. John Yarmuth commented that Vice President Mike Pence would not be the obvious choice to succeed Trump if he was impeached and removed from office.
"I do think its the right thing to do to remove him from office—I believe he is an imminent danger to this country and to our democracy but I was saying the political consequences of that might not be very good for Democrats," Yarmuth said, further explaining comments he initially made to The Hillin November.
"If we remove him from office, I will guarantee you the Republican Party would not nominate Mike Pence to succeed him.
"They would nominate someone like [former UN ambassador] Nikki Haley who would be much more difficult for a Democrat to defeat. But again, I don't think this is about politics and I don't think we should consider politics. I just think it could be bad politics," he added.
Yarmuth's comments come as the House Intelligence Committee prepares to release its Impeachment Report on Tuesday evening ahead of the inquiry being transferred to the Judiciary Committee, with the first Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
However, the White House has announced that it will not be participating in Wednesday's hearing, CNN reported, with White House Counsel to the president Pat Cipollone writing to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler to say: "We cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the President a fair process through additional hearings.
"More importantly, an invitation to an academic discussion with law professors does not begin to provide the President with any semblance of a fair process. Accordingly, under the current circumstances, we do not intend to participate in your Wednesday hearing," the letter added.
The report is a result of several months of information gathering as part of the initial stage of the impeachment inquiry, prompted by a whistleblower report that raised concerns about a July phone call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
In the phone call, Trump is accused of pressuring Zelenskiy to investigate his political rivals, allegedly withholding aid to the country and dangling the prospect of a White House visit to incentivize such an investigation.
However, Trump has denied there was any pressure or quid pro quo in the phone call, and has dismissed the impeachment inquiry as a "witch hunt."
