Scott Galloway Warns Democrats Off Impeaching Donald Trump After Midterms

Scott Galloway, co-host of the Raging Moderates podcast, predicted that Democrats will "start getting excited" about impeaching President Donald Trump if the Senate goes 52 or 53 seats their way and they take all of Congress next week. He said that would be a mistake.

Galloway made the prediction at a live taping on Friday at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics with co-host Jessica Tarlov and the center's director, political scientist Larry Sabato. The midterms are on November 3.

"I think if the Senate goes 52, 53, the Democrats will start getting excited about a potential impeachment. I think that's a bad idea," Galloway said.

Scott Galloway's Growth Agenda Instead of Impeachment

Galloway, who said earlier in the taping that "we call ourselves raging moderates, but the reality is we're progressives," said he advises many of the Democrats considering a 2028 presidential run. His message to them, he said, is that "we've got to move from the party of indignance to ideas," and that it should happen "within a couple weeks of winning the election."

"I think immediately they need to put forward a growth agenda," he said. "This is how we're going to take corporate taxes up."

He described a minimum tax on corporations and on people earning more than $1 million, with "everyone else's taxes are staying the same." He also called for restored IRS enforcement: "We're going to restore funding to the IRS. The biggest tax cut in history that no one talks about was the neutering of the IRS."

The IRS projected a gross tax gap of $696 billion for tax year 2022, meaning taxes owed but not paid on time. Galloway put the figure at $750 billion a year.

Galloway said centrist Democrats' "basic value proposition is we're not them," and he warned that a midterm win would not be a lasting mandate: "just because voters hook up with us in the midterms doesn't mean they want to marry us."

Jessica Tarlov on Money and Accountability

Earlier in the evening, before the conversation turned to impeachment, Galloway argued that record campaign spending was buying less and less. "I think the ROI on money is about to hit an absolute record low in this race," he said.

Tarlov tied that point to corruption, which she said ranked as the top issue in the latest Fox News poll. In that scenario, she said, "they're gonna be hauling in not Donald Trump, but everyone around him."

She offered that as an answer to Galloway's concern about money in politics: "If you can't actually fix campaign finance, you find a way to hold leaders accountable."

Larry Sabato: Impeachment 'Doomed to Fail'

Sabato, the evening's host, made Galloway's case against impeachment more bluntly near the end of the taping, and the audience applauded.

"Would you please resist the impulse to launch into impeachment? It is doomed to fail and you're gonna strengthen Trump," Sabato said. "Zero chance of a conviction." He added that "they'll impeach him, but they won't convict him."

Why the Senate Math Favors Galloway and Sabato

Conviction requires two-thirds of the Senate, or 67 votes. Even at the high end of Galloway's scenario, a 53-seat Democratic caucus would be 14 votes short. PolitiKool's Senate forecast rates control of the chamber a toss-up, with eight toss-up races.

No modern presidential impeachment trial has reached 67 votes. The Senate acquitted Bill Clinton in 1999 with 45 votes to convict on perjury and 50 on obstruction. Trump was acquitted in 2020 by 48 and 47 votes for conviction on his two articles. In 2021, seven Republicans joined Democrats in a 57-43 vote, which still fell 10 short.

What Voters Say About a Third Impeachment

The public is more open to impeachment than the Senate is. In April, a Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll of 1,514 Americans found 55 percent supported the House impeaching Trump and 37 percent opposed it.

Trump's approval stands at 37.6 percent in PolitiKool's polling average, and Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot by 8.5 points.

What Happens Next

Galloway, who said last week that the Democratic Party has left young men, wants Democrats to move to ideas, starting with taxes, within weeks of winning. Whether they lead with that, with oversight hearings or with articles of impeachment depends first on how many Senate seats they win on November 3, and then on how much pressure leaders face from voters who already say Trump deserves to be impeached.