A controversial tweet by US President Donald Trump warning of civil war if he was to be removed from office has come under scrutiny after a Harvard law professor said it could constitute further grounds for impeachment.
John Coates, a professor of law and economics at Harvard Law School, tweeted on Monday evening that Mr Trump's tweet - which paraphrased statements made on Fox & Friends by his supporter Pastor Robert Jeffress - was "an independent basis for impeachment".
Mr Trump published the controversial statement on Monday as part of a series of tweets defending himself against the upcoming impeachment inquiry, announced last week by Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
"If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal," Mr Trump wrote.
Professor Coates, and a number of social media users, interpreted the tweet as "a sitting president threatening civil war if Congress exercises its constitutionally authorised power".
A second Harvard Law School Professor, Laurence H. Tribe, agreed with Professor Coates but said it was "far from the strongest ground for impeachment".
"It’s much too easy to dismiss as typical Trumpian bloviating, not to be taken seriously," he wrote.
Donald Trump speaks to the media. Source: AAP
David Smith, a lecturer at the University of Sydney US Studies Centre, told SBS News that while the tweet was "irresponsible" it was unlikely to be an impeachable offence.
"If anything, it is properly protected by the first amendment of the US constitution that protects political speech pretty extensively," he said.
"[But] it is really quite dangerous when a President is talking about a completely legal procedure in this way.
"On the other hand, a lot of people have expressed concerns that this would be a very divisive move in an already divisive country, but ramping it up to the level of civil war, I think that is highly irresponsible."
Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger also took to Twitter to blast the President's tweet, describing it as "beyond repugnant".
"I have visited nations ravaged by civil war ... I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President," Mr Kinzinger, who is an Air Force veteran, said on Monday.
Professor Coates' tweet, which had been shared more than 5,000 times by Tuesday morning, came hours before the New York Times revealed Mr Trump had urged Prime Minister Scott Morrison to assist with an investigation aimed at discrediting the Mueller probe into alleged Russian interference in the US election.
Days earlier, an impeachment investigation was announced on the back of a leaked whistleblower complaint alleging that Mr Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation into his likely 2020 presidential opponent, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter.
Mr Trump has denied he pressured Mr Zelensky to launch an investigation and has accused the Democrats of making "this whole thing up".
"The fake whistleblower complaint is not holding up. It is mostly about the call to the Ukrainian President which, in the name of transparency, I immediately released to Congress and the public," he tweeted on Monday. "The whistleblower knew almost nothing, its 2ND HAND description of the call is a fraud!"
In an earlier tweet, the President accused House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff, who is leading the impeachment inquiry against him, of "treason" and called for him to be questioned.
"When he [Mr Trump] is talking about treason he is talking about something that traditionally requires a violent remedy, so I think this is a very extreme response," Dr Smith said.
"He is ramping up the rhetoric in all kinds of ways and in all kinds of ways that are dangerous."
