KRUGMAN: If Trump ‘were a Democrat, impeachment hearings would already be underway’

Paul KrugmanNeilson Barnard/Getty Images

Paul Krugman, the Nobel-winning economist and New York Times columnist, suggested he thinks President Donald Trump has plunged the US into a crisis and that his job would be on the line in different circumstances.

“If he were a Democrat, impeachment hearings would already be underway,” Krugman tweeted as part of a tweetstorm on Wednesday.

Krugman said that while Trump has not created a “constitutional crisis,” the new administration has plunged the country “deep into a *legitimacy* crisis.”

Krugman factored in a number of circumstances surrounding Trump’s presidency with his commentary: trailing in the popular vote; the FBI announcement about Hillary Clinton’s emails a few weeks before the election, which Krugman thinks influenced the results; the information intelligence agencies had regarding communications between Trump campaign officials and Russian officials; and consistent false claims by Trump about voter fraud once he came into office.

“So how does this man send Americans to die, get to pick the Supreme Court for decades to come? Our whole system is now tainted,” tweeted Krugman, calling into question Trump’s ability to execute the office of president.

There is one solution, according to the economist: a non-partisan investigation into Trump and his administration. Krugman was skeptical.

“The only thing that could remove the taint would be bipartisan, clearly independent investigations followed by action,” he concluded. “See, I made a joke.”

Republican lawmakers spent parts of Tuesday downplaying the recent resignation of National Security Adviser Mike Flynn after he lied about his communications with Russian officials regarding sanctions on the country by former President Barack Obama.

Here is the full Krugman tweetstorm: