Democrats are now openly considering impeaching the President Donald Trump following the convictions of two of his associates on Tuesday. Trump denied that he is guilty of any crimes and said that his impeachment would have dire results.

On Tuesday, a jury found Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort guilty of financial crimes. Hours later, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance crimes.

Manafort will go to trial again in September on foreign agent charges. Meanwhile, Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, says that Cohen has information about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. This comes after Cohen implied that Trump knew about and agreed to his financial crimes.

Democratic Response

With more legal pressure coming down on the president, Democrats feel that their chances of winning the Senate during the midterms are increasing. If they do win the Senate, they might be able to recall Trump.

If the president did commit any crimes, as Cohen alleges, the House would need to impeach him before it could indict him.

However, Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary for George W. Bush, said that Trump’s actions do not meet the qualifications for impeachment. They are not “high crimes and misdemeanors,” he said.

“Having an affair and lying about it with a porn star and a Playboy bunny is not impeachable; it’s Donald Trump,” Fleischer said.

Trump’s Response

Trump spoke to "Fox and Friends" on Wednesday in an interview that aired on Thursday.

During the conversation, he spoke about Manafort. He called him a “great man” who “refused to break” under pressure. Trump also said that he had “great respect” for Manafort. Regarding Manafort’s crimes, he said that “every consultant, every lobbyist in Washington probably does [the same things].”

As for Cohen, the president blamed his former lawyer for betraying his confidence. “It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal,” he said.

The president said that Cohen's crimes weren’t “even a campaign violation.” Cohen admitted paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep quiet about former affairs with Trump. Trump argued that he paid Cohen back out of his own money, so they didn’t use campaign funds. The legal problem, however, is that he didn’t report the payment.

"I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor,” Trump said when asked about plans to impeach him. “Without this thinking, you would see, you would see numbers that you wouldn’t believe in reverse.”