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Betting odds of Trump impeachment jump after Comey firing

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Agence France Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2017/overseas/05/10/trump-waves.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">US President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One. <cite>Saul Loeb, AFP</cite></div></figcaption></figure></div>WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump&#x27;s sudden dismissal of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday has seen the betting odds of a Trump impeachment skyrocket, bookmaking sites told AFP on Wednesday.Opposition Democrat lawmakers have ramped up calls for an independent investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow since Trump&#x27;s surprise firing of the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday.The shocking news drew immediate comparisons to former President Richard Nixon&#x27;s dismissal of the independent Watergate investigator Archibald Cox in 1973. Nixon resigned the following year after a congressional panel voted for impeachment.<ul class="op-related-articles"> <li><a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/05/09/17/trump-fires-fbi-director-comey-white-house">Trump fires FBI Director Comey: White House</a></li></ul>By Wednesday, the odds for a Trump impeachment during his first term had risen from 2/1 to 4/6, representing a 60 percent chance, according to Lewis Davey, a spokesman for the Irish betting site Paddy Power.&quot;We can attribute this to the news of Comey&#x27;s sacking,&quot; said Davey, adding that the current four-to-six odds were &quot;the shortest we&#x27;ve been for Trump to be impeached in his first term.&quot;Online gambling is still largely prohibited in much of the United States and so the odds likely do not reflect a significant share of American views.The betting odds are also not probabilities for any outcome -- but do reflect the weight of money that punters have staked.Naomi Totten of Betfair, a separate British betting platform owned by the same corporate parent as Paddy Power, said the Comey firing had customers eager to wager on a Trump downfall.&quot;There&#x27;s someone who&#x27;s looking to place a hundred thousand pounds on Trump to leave,&quot; she told AFP, a sum currently equal to about $129,000.The unnamed gambler had already staked 30,000 pounds and was seeking to add another 70,000, but no one had so far taken that bet, Totten said.In the hours following Comey&#x27;s ouster, the odds that Trump will leave office before the year is out went from 9/1 to 3/1, according to Totten.Since Comey&#x27;s firing, bets have been lighter on whether Trump will leave before the end of his first term in January 2021, she said, &quot;but they have been big enough to move the odds from 15/2 to even money.&quot;The president&#x27;s poll numbers have reached near record lows since his inauguration and the president&#x27;s favorable rating is currently at 54.2 percent, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls.Trump&#x27;s Republican party controls both chambers of Congress, reducing the likelihood of an impeachment.<div> </div>

President Donald Trump's sudden dismissal of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday has seen the betting odds of a Trump impeachment skyrocket, bookmaking sites told AFP on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump's sudden dismissal of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday has seen the betting odds of a Trump impeachment skyrocket, bookmaking sites told AFP on Wednesday.