Navarro: If Trump Impeachment Moves Forward, Biden Can ‘Forget About Unity’

Then-White House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro is seen outside the White House on Oct. 8, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

If the push to convict President Donald Trump after he was impeached isn’t stopped by President Joe Biden, then Biden can forget about trying to unify the country, a former Trump adviser said Jan. 20.

If Biden is not able to keep Democratic congressional leaders “from backing down from trying to gut Donald J. Trump, forget about unity,” former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on “War Room.”

“That’s gone, that’s off the table. This will be a 50–50 country. The gap between us will be a chasm. There will be nothing but friction.”

The House of Representatives impeached Trump earlier this month on a charge of incitement of insurrection, alleging he was at fault for the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol.

The House has not yet submitted the impeachment resolution to the Senate. Typically, trials take place in the upper chamber following an impeachment. At the conclusion of a trial, senators vote to acquit or convict a president. A two-thirds supermajority is required to convict.

No president has been tried after he left office. Trump left office on Jan. 20.

“Donald J. Trump got on this plane today and went home to Florida,” Navarro said, gesturing to a picture of Air Force One behind him. “And if you’re going to hound him any further, you’re just going to make him more of an issue and a bigger issue, and you will regret it. So let’s see what happens in the next 48 hours.”

Steve Bannon, the “War Room” host and former Trump strategist who was pardoned earlier this week, said he'd rather have a trial take place. “Call their bluff,” he said.

Navarro clarified that he also wants a trial to happen.

“I’m just saying that’s what they should do, if they had any sense,” he said.

Bannon said Trump’s team would present compelling evidence of election fraud if a trial were to take place.

Democrats took control of the Senate on Jan. 20 with the swearing-in of three senators, including Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff from Georgia. The start date of a trial remains unclear.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked on Jan. 20 whether Biden believes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) should drop the impeachment push in light of his statements about trying to unify America.

“He’s going to leave the mechanics, the timing, and the specifics of how Congress moves forward on impeachment to them,” she said.