Watch: GOP Leadership Will ‘Destroy the Republican Party,’ Trigger Mass Exodus if They Vote to Convict Trump, Sen. Paul Says

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) soberly predicted Friday that the Republican Party will be destroyed and hemorrhage a third of its members if party leadership votes to convict President Donald Trump during a second impeachment trial.

During an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Paul described the second impeachment push against Trump as “crazy,” and further evidence of how the president’s opponents are “bitter.”

“I just don’t understand how they can be moving forward with this,” Paul said. “And look, I’m not just saying I’m for everything President Trump has done. I was for seating the electors because I think Congress shouldn’t overturn the state electors. But at the same time, the thing they are doing is an overreaction, and if they think they’re going to have a positive feeling from the public when they’re going to go through a partisan impeachment again, I think that’s absolutely insane and wrongheaded.”

Regarding Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) apparent willingness to conduct an impeachment trial against Trump even after he has left office, Paul said, “They will destroy the Republican Party if leadership is complicit with an impeachment, or if leadership votes for an impeachment, they will destroy the party.”

Reiterating that he both supported and opposed Trump when he thought appropriate, Paul maintained that “impeachment is purely a partisan thing” intended simply for moral posturing.

“Look, I didn’t agree with the fight that happened last week, and I voted against overturning the election, but at the same time, the impeachment is a wrongheaded, partisan notion, [and] if Republicans go along with it, it’ll destroy the party,” Paul said.