Former US Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, has expressed hope that Republican senators muster the courage to oust the president for his wrongdoings.
Biden said during an interview broadcast Friday night on "CNN Tonight with Don Lemon" that he hoped the Democratic-led House votes to impeach US President Donald Trump.
The lawmakers in the Democratic-led House are expected to vote to impeach the Republican president on the House floor by Christmas Day, media reported on Thursday.
The impeachment, which begins in the House, is then referred to the Senate to hold the trial.
in the impeachment trial of a president, House members act as the prosecutors, Senate members act as jurors, and the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over it.
"I believe [Trump] should be impeached and have the Senate try whether or not they are high crimes and misdemeanors that would cause him to be thrown out of office," Biden told CNN.
"I hope they have the courage," he continued, emphasizing that Senate members should remember their role in history and play by the rules.
"I hope they remember, this is a moment -- a moment when their record is going down in history as whether they played it by the rules."
Biden, who had served as Senate member for 36 years before becoming vice president, said he would not rule out the possibility of senators backing the impeachment.
House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry against Trump in September after a whistleblower alleged the Republican president pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
The impeachment probe shifted to a public phase on November 13 after weeks of closed-door interviews in the House. An overwhelming 70 percent of US adults think Trump’s action towards Ukraine was wrong, and a slim majority of Americans, 51 percent, believe Trump’s actions were both wrong and he should be removed from office, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.