Trump has blasted the impeachment inquiry, arguing that he did nothing wrong and accusing Democrats of launching a politically motivated “witch hunt.” Lawmakers in the Democratic-led House of Representatives are investigating concerns that Trump’s actions have jeopardized national security and the integrity of U.S. elections. The impeachment inquiry has cast a new pall over Trump’s presidency just months after he emerged from the shadow cast by Mueller’s investigation.

So could the president be charged with a crime? (Or, as was the case with President Richard Nixon in 1974, be named as an unindicted co-conspirator?) The official line of the Justice Department is that a sitting president cannot be charged. Many lawyers argue that the Constitution’s only relief is impeachment, a charge made by the U.S. House of Representatives which is followed by a trial in the U.S. Senate. Perhaps.

But bullies like Trump are cowards at heart. However appealing he finds sliming his prosecutors like a stressed hagfish, the thought of running away to spend more time with his 9-iron might prove irresistible. Would Pence trade the Oval Office for Trump’s holding his resignation hostage to a pardon? Pence could use the same reason Gerald Ford gave for pardoning Richard Nixon in 1974: To write the ending of a nightmarish chapter in our history. 

In his SALN, Duterte declared a net worth of P27.43 million as of December 2016, which is higher compared to P24.08 million, as of June of last year when he assumed the presidency. His SALN attributed the increase of his net worth to his cash on hand or bank—which rose from P15.31 million in the first half of 2016 to P18.45 million by the end of the year. Duterte’s net worth, however, is about P1 million less from his P28.43 total declared assets.

Those hopes almost certainly will be dashed. The so-called “impeachment clause” in the Constitution lists the thoroughly ambiguous, “high crimes and misdemeanors” as one of the crimes that a sitting president must commit for the House to initiate the action and then the Senate to convict. In Trump’s case, this would fall into the category of obstruction of justice. The Comey memo isn’t enough. Trump will continue to deny that he ordered him to back off from the investigation. 

A President Pence would move quickly, adeptly, and expertly at trying to ram legislation and initiatives through Congress and via executive order fiat to gut or eliminate every one of these protections. The key word here is expertly. He knows the legislative process through and through. He is part and parcel of the GOP establishment. GOP senators and congresspersons are comfortable with him. He would smile affably, make no bombastic, outrageous statements or tweets, and work quietly and businesslike behind the scenes to implement his agenda. 

Few subjects have been more hotly debated, scrutinized, and endlessly rehashed, than whether #45 can or will be impeached. A deluge of petitions has been circulated online, and tens of thousands of signatures have been gathered for his removal. The issue of a Trump impeachment roared back on the public and media plate at a recent anti-Trump tax disclosure rally in Washington D.C. where speaker after speaker called for his head by way of impeachment.