House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D., S.C.) said Tuesday that if put to a vote today, most House Democrats would vote "no" on impeachment of President Donald Trump.
Clyburn's comments came amid increasing Democratic calls for impeachment proceedings after former White House Counsel Don McGahn refused to testify before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday morning. Meet the Press host Chuck Todd asked Clyburn if the calls for impeachment characterized the majority of Democratic opinion.
"If you did a secret ballot among the Democratic caucus, yes or no on impeachment, what would the majority likely be?" Todd asked.
"Oh, the majority would be no," Clyburn said.
"You believe that?" Todd asked.
Clyburn said he was confident the majority would still be no, even if the majority would be a bit smaller than it had been before McGahn did not appear to testify.
"A majority will be for staying steady, staying focused, stay on what we're doing, because this thing is moving in our direction," Clyburn said.
Clyburn said House Democrats should allow impeachment to happen naturally, listing what he considers recent Democratic victories that move in that direction.
"We have just seen members of staff at Deutsche Bank, saying they saw irregularities taking place, and they're all for us finding out about it," Clyburn said. "We know that [Justin] Amash has broken ranks. He's a Republican, irrespective of what you may think about him, he's broken ranks. We have a court decision in our favor that we did not have two days ago. And who knows what's to come next: let's just stay steady, stay focused, this thing is moving in our direction. Let's not get in its way."
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) will meet with top Democrats on Wednesday morning to discuss strategies for investigating Trump in the next few months.