Day 6

Trump's odds of staying in office: The Day 6 Impeach-O-Meter for July 14

Buzzfeed News Capitol Hill reporter Paul McLeod assesses the probability of Donald Trump's presidency ending in impeachment.
In the Impeach-O-Meter reading for July 15, Buzzfeed News reporter Paul McLeod suggests Donald Trump is inching closer to impeachment. (Day 6)

When Donald Trump generates headlines, Day 6 fires up the "Impeach-O-Meter," inviting political experts to estimate the odds his presidency will end in impeachment. These are, of course, subjective and hypothetical scores and the impeachment process is complex and dependent on many factors.

The Trump White House is reeling from yet another scandal. But this time, it's not the President who's making headlines. It's his son, Donald Trump Jr.

Talk of impeachment has been in the air since Donald Trump was elected and the ongoing revelations of his campaign's ties with Russia continue to fuel it.

With Donald Trump Jr.'s admission that he met with a lawyer linked to the Russian government, who was promising to deliver dirt on Hillary Clinton in order to help his father's campaign, we're firing up the Day 6 Impeach-O-Meter for another reading.

We're estimating the odds of President Donald Trump's impeachment, from one, meaning totally safe in the White House, to 100, meaning impeachment is imminent.

When we last checked in, Upworthy's Parker Molloy placed the chance of impeachment at 15 per cent.

Today, Buzzfeed News Capitol Hill reporter, Paul McLeod, gives us his take on the crazy week in Washington.    

"For months, we've known that the Russian government interfered with the American election and hacked some Democratic email and put them out to try and bring down Hillary Clinton. What we did not know was whether the Trump administration knew about it or colluded in this effort in any way. So what we learned this week is that Donald Trump Jr., whether or not he actually colluded, at least tried to.

He was told that the Russian government agent wanted to meet him and give him incriminating information on Hillary Clinton, and he enthusiastically went ahead with that meeting. He now says it was a dud and the person was crazy and didn't have any actual info. But we know he at least sought this information.

We don't have any hard, conclusive evidence of either what happened [at the meeting] or that Donald Trump knew. But, again, it is pretty wild and incriminating that the Trump campaign, at the very least, really wanted to get this information and tried to make it happen."

So where does McLeod place the Impeach-O-Meter this week?

"20 per cent."      

That's this week's edition of the Impeach-O-Meter. We'll continue to track the numbers in the weeks to come.