Al Franken Warns On Impeachment: 'Zealot' Pence Would Be 'Worse than Trump'

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has a warning for fellow progressives hoping to see President Donald Trump impeached.

Vice President Mike Pence would move into the Oval Office, and Franken said that would lead to new set of problems.

“He’s ideological, I consider him a zealot,” Franken told International Business Times. “And I think that in terms of a lot of domestic policy, certainly would be worse than Trump.”

Franken said Pence, who ran the Trump transition, was responsible for some of Trump’s worst Cabinet choices, including Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.

On the other hand, Franken said, a Pence presidency might be better than Trump on foreign policy.

“If you’re talking about how we handle North Korea or something like that, I’d probably be more comfortable with Pence ultimately making those decisions than Trump, because of Trump’s personality and character,” Franken said.

Franken, now in his second term, said he was concerned by Trump’s behavior because it’s “so outside the norm,” and said he worried that impeachment could make the president even worse.

“I don’t know what he will do if he looks like he’s going to be impeached and he wants to deflect,” Franken said. “I don’t know what he’s capable of, and that really does concern me.”

Read the full interview at International Business Times.

Franken spoke to the website at an event in Denver to promote his new book, Giant of the Senate.