Peter Navarro Claims Impeachment Inquiry Is 'An Attempted Coup D'Etat'

The White House trade adviser accuses Democrats of searching for a crime they could try to pin on Trump.
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Following the tone of President Donald Trump’s incendiary backlash against a fast-moving impeachment inquiry, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro likened it to an overthrow.

“This is nothing less than an attempted coup d’etat and end-run around the ballot box,” he said Tuesday on Fox Business Network.

Navarro went on to ask, rhetorically, whether impeachment should “be used to depose a duly elected president when they can’t beat him at the ballot box,” adding that Democrats had adopted a stance of “show me the man, I’ll find you the crime.”

“That’s what we’re doing with President Trump, and this is a very dangerous game, I think, that the Democrats can play,” he said.

Navarro speculated that the House could be “more dangerous right now” than China, Russia, Iran or North Korea.

Trump drew outrage Sunday when he shared on Twitter a quote from Texas pastor Robert Jeffress who warned on “Fox & Friends” that if the president is impeached, “it will cause a Civil War-like fracture in this nation from which this country will never heal.”

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq, swiftly condemned the remark as “beyond repugnant,” noting that he has seen firsthand “nations ravaged by civil war.”

Frustrated by the whistleblower complaint that fueled the impeachment inquiry, Trump has also taken aim at House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

On Monday, Trump suggested Schiff should be arrested for treason for his gangster-style portrayal of Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the July 25 call, Trump repeatedly pressed Zelensky for help with an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter based on unsubstantiated corruption allegations. A summary of the call shows Trump had spoken about U.S. military aid to Ukraine just before making his request for an investigation of his 2020 political rival.

Opening a hearing last week with Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, Schiff parodied the conversation as a shakedown, repeating its contents in exaggerated terms to make his point, which drew ire from Trump.

Trump also implied last week that anyone who gave information to the whistleblower is guilty of treason and should be executed, claiming they are “close to” being spies, according to The New York Times.

Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson had determined that the whistleblower complaint ― which accuses Trump of “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election” ― was credible.

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