Many Republicans are echoing the “no collusion” mantra President Donald Trump has reiterated in the wake of the release of the Mueller report. | Mandel Ngan/Getty Images White House Trump’s aides ignoring impeachment chatter

Impeachment talk is racing around Washington. Democrats pressed the issue on a caucus conference call Monday. Some White House hopefuls are urging Congress to take action. Even President Donald Trump himself weighed in Monday morning.

But in the White House, aides aren’t thinking much about impeachment.


They’re not convinced Democrats would ever move forward with the bold initiative, which has little chance of ending in Trump’s removal. And even if the Democrats did, they think it would be a political gift to the president, according to three people familiar with the White House’s plans on the issue. One administration official said the White House is so unconcerned that it does not currently have a strategy in place for responding to potential impeachment proceedings.

And even as the president waded into the debate — “you can’t impeach,” he proclaimed — he insisted later on Monday that he’s “not even a little bit” worried about impeachment.

At least on the surface, White House aides appear similarly unconcerned.

“The likelihood that the Democrats will try to impeach the president is next to zero,” said the administration official. “We deal with problems as they come. You don’t start preparing for a lawsuit before the suit [is filed].”

Indeed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected fresh calls on Monday to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Pelosi and other Democratic leaders argue that impeachment is a step that would be too divisive for the country, and that their party would be better off letting voters rebuke Trump at the ballot box. In a letter to her colleagues on Monday, Pelosi encouraged them to consider other ways that they might punish Trump for his “highly unethical and unscrupulous behavior” documented in Mueller’s report.

Only high crimes and misdemeanors can lead to impeachment. There were no crimes by me (No Collusion, No Obstruction), so you can’t impeach. It was the Democrats that committed the crimes, not your Republican President! Tables are finally turning on the Witch Hunt! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2019

Trump made his own argument in a tweet early Monday, insisting he cannot be removed from office because he has not been charged with a crime.

“Only high crimes and misdemeanors can lead to impeachment. There were no crimes by me (No Collusion, No Obstruction), so you can’t impeach,” he wrote. “It was the Democrats that committed the crimes, not your Republican President! Tables are finally turning on the Witch Hunt!”

Trump’s legal analysis aside, it does appear unlikely that Democrats would move anytime soon to launch impeachment proceedings. And even if they did, their efforts would face long odds.

With a GOP majority in the Senate, impeachment would require defections from 20 members of Trump’s own party — and almost all Republican lawmakers are calling for the government to simply move on now that the investigation is concluded. So far, the moderate GOP voices who would need to signal even the most passing interest for impeachment — Sens. Mitt Romney, Rob Portman, Susan Collins, to name a few — have been silent on the matter.

The Trump White House also senses it has little need to worry about any sizable number of House Republicans turning on the president to any degree, thanks in part to the lack of a moderate faction left in the GOP ranks in the aftermath of the 2018 midterms. Political analysts say Pelosi would need dozens of House Republicans to join her cause on impeachment for it to translate into the 20 Senate Republicans needed for Trump’s conviction.

It’s that reality that seems to have put both the president and his staff at ease, even as Trump’s approval rating sinks to an all-time low , and the White House tries to weather a spate of negative headlines about Robert Mueller’s detailed examples of the president’s attempts to obstruct justice.

The president’s allies see impeachment not only as a pipe dream, but as a major boost to Trump in his bid for a second term. Only a third of voters in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll said they support impeachment proceedings versus 48 percent who oppose such efforts.

Numbers like that, combined with Pelosi’s public comments on impeachment, has left the White House convinced that the top Democratic leader will not be squeezed by the party’s base, or by pro-impeachment members of her caucus.

As one administration official put it: “She seems keenly aware that if they launch impeachment now, it will guarantee [Trump’s] reelection in 2020.”

Instead, the White House is more interested in dragging out things like a blockbuster hearing with former White House counsel Don McGahn, a star witness in the Mueller report who relayed some of the more damning evidence that the president may have obstructed justice.

And the more Trump’s team can block and stymie Democratic subpoenas for key documents like the president’s tax returns — possible precursors for an impeachment battle — the more they can delay any impeachment efforts.

Democratic leaders, including Pelosi, ducked questions about impeachment in the hours after the Mueller report was released last Thursday, wary about the massive practical and political challenges such drastic action would pose. Some reportedly worry it could cost their party the House in 2020, presenting an electoral victory over Trump as a more practical goal.

Select Democrats, however, are bucking party leadership and making rallying cries to oust Trump.

Presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday tweeted a call on Congress to launch impeachment proceedings, setting herself apart from other 2020 primary candidates who mostly demurred on questions about such efforts.

But in general, Democrats are pushing to ramp up ongoing congressional investigations into the president's conduct. The House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena for an unredacted version of Mueller’s report Friday and are in talks with the Justice Department about plans for the special counsel to testify before Congress next month.

Many Republicans, on the other hand, are echoing the “no collusion” and “witch hunt” mantra the president has reiterated in the wake of the report's release — part of a bash-the-investigators strategy that has long been part of Trump’s game plan to rally core supporters heading into the 2020 election.

Darren Samuelsohn and Eliana Johnson contributed to this report.