Republicans opposed to Donald Trump’simpeachment are “dying dinosaurs”, according to activist and filmmaker Michael Moore.
Yet he has also warned Democrats, that despite the president being impeached by the House, Mr Trump could be reelected in 2020.
“[When the president was impeached] the Republicans let out this noise, this otherworldly noise, that — it wasn’t a “boo”. It was like a “uuuaaarrrhh.” It’s like, “Wow!” And I said to my sister, ‘That is what the dying dinosaurs must have sounded like in their final moments’,” Mr Moore told Democracy Now.
“So, the good news is here, those are the dying dinosaurs. And they know it. They know it because the demographic has changed. It’s not their America anymore. Seventy percent of the eligible voters next November are either women, people of colour or young people.”
Moore, 65, producer of award-winning films such as Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, made his remarks after Democrats in the House of Representatives passed two articles of impeachment against the president.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi has yet to transmit the articles to the Senate for a trial, arguing that comments made by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, indicated he would not guarantee a fair prices in the GOP-controlled chamber.
So far, just one Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, has voiced concerns about the process. She spoke out when Mr McConnell suggested he was working “hand in glove” with the White House.
“I was disturbed. To me, it means that we have to take that step back from being hand in glove with the defence,” said the Alaska senator.
Moore said he believed it was conceivable Republicans in the Senate could vote to remove the president, though he said it was unlikely.
The filmmaker, who lives in Flint, Michigan, a state Mr Trump took in 2016, was among those who predicted the president could win that election. He also said Mr Trump could win reelection in 2020.
“If the vote were today, I believe, he would win the electoral states that he would need, because, living out there, I will tell you, his level of support has not gone down one inch,” he said.
“In fact, I’d say it’s even more rabid than it was before, because they’re afraid now. They’re afraid he could lose, because they watched his behaviour. So they are voracious in their appetite for Donald Trump. That’s the bad news.”
Moore, a supporter of progressive Bernie Sanders, claimed it was essential Democrats did not nominate a moderate, or a “Republican-lite” as their candidate.
“What we have to do is we have to make sure we don’t give them another Hillary Clinton to vote for,” he said.
“Our side has got to take this by the reins, and it’s got to have the courage of our convictions to fight this. And if we do this, then he won’t win the electoral states.”
He added: “We will win when we put somebody on that ballot that excites the base — women, people of colour, young people. When they wake up that morning and they feel the way many of us felt in 2008, when you were going to vote for Barack Obama, and you couldn’t believe this was happening in your lifetime.”
