House Intel Democrat says Trump's abuses make Watergate look like "child's play"

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, argued against the idea that impeaching President Trump without a conviction in the Senate will have "no effect," telling Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday that Trump's abuses of power involving Ukraine are so extreme that they "require a response."

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"Chris, we're where looking at abuse of power and a level of corruption here that makes the Nixon impeachment look like child's play. Remember, Nixon wasn't the guy who actually broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters, he just knew about it. Nobody died in Ukraine because Nixon held up aid to a very vulnerable nation. Nixon didn't fire any ambassadors because Giuliani didn't like that ambassador. ... These are abuses of power, by any stretch of the imagination, that require a response."

Why it matters: Before launching a formal impeachment inquiry last month, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had long argued that impeachment would have to be a bipartisan exercise with overwhelming public support in order to move forward. While most polling shows that about 50% Americans now favor impeaching Trump, not a single Republican voted for last week's resolution formalizing impeachment procedures.

Go deeper: Trump impeachment starts more partisan than Bill Clinton's