Reply #175: Is that relevant?

[RaleighNCDUer]

After all, do presidential candidates initiate impeachment proceedings?

Did he say anything about opposing impeachment, if the House initiates it? Did he say, as a Senator, that he would vote against conviction (before hearing any evidence)?

No.

It is a simple statement which lies in a wide range of possibilities - one of which is "I'm not going to throw people into the McCain camp by pre-emptively saying I am going to put a Republican president in jail".

As a sitting senator, he CANNOT come out in favor of impeachment without it appearing to be a crass political move because he is the Democratic candidate and the administration under threat of impeachment is Republican. In fact, insofar as he would directly benefit by a successful impeachment, I suggest he would have to recuse himself from voting on the impeachment if it came up.

If he were a Governor, rather than a senator who would be obliged to vote for or against conviction, you might be hearing something different from him. As is, he needs to keep himself out of the impeachment argument.