Reeling from 73-year-old President Trump’s Feb. 5 acquittal in the U.S. Senate, 69-year-old U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked government agency inspector generals to investigate White House retaliation. When Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his twin brother Lt. Col. Yegevney Vindman got the ax Feb. 7 from the National Security Council, Schumer went wild accusing Trump of retaliation. Schumer worked hard with lead House Impeachment Manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to alienate Senate Republicans, accusing them of breaching their oaths-of-office if they didn’t vote with Democrats. After Trump’s legal team made mincemeat of House Democrats’ impeachment case, only Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) voted with Democrats on the abuse of power article to convict Trump. Democrats put Romney on a pedestal for voting to convict the president.
Democrats and Romney paid no attention to Trump’s compelling legal arguments delivered by 81-year-old emeritus Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz in the impeachment trial. Desrshowitz cited convincing legal precedents that both House impeachment articles were unconstitutional. Yet Romney ignored the arguments, citing his Mormon faith for how he concluded that Trump was guilty of high-crimes-and-misdemeanors. Romney’s now Democrats’ poster boy for integrity, when it’s clear he didn’t get Trump’s convincing legal case. Getting rid of the Vindman twins was inevitable, after Alexander testified Nov. 19, 2019 in the House Intelligence Committee that he thought Trump’s July 25, 2019 call with 40-year-old Ukrainian President was “inappropriate.” Vindman speculated that Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Vice President Joe Biden and his 50-year-old son, Hunter.
Schumer also railed against Trump firing 62-year-old former European Union Amb. Gordon Sondland for testifying that Trump engaged in a quid pro quo with Zelensky. Schumer can’t stomach the fact that White House officials serve at the pleasure of the president, not the other way around. Trump didn’t know before that his ambassador and NSA officials think the president engaged in inappropriate behavior. Calling NSC dismissals “part of a dangerous growing pattern of retaliation against those who report wrongdoing only to find themselves targeted by the President and subject to his wrath and vindictiveness,” Schumer accused Trump again. Coming out an abysmal impeachment failure, Schumer tried to show that he and House Democrats won’t give up on harassing Trump. Schumer and Pelosi can’t accept that the U.S. Senate acquitted Trump from a partisan impeachment trial.
Impeaching Trump was supposed give Democrats a head of steam in the 2020 presidential election. Judging by a recent Gallup Poll, Trump’s approval ratings hit 49%, the highest mark of his 3-year-old presidency. Carrying that into the election year, Republicans are growing more confident about Trump’s reelection. Only a bad economy can help make Democrats’ case as the primaries wear on. With tomorrow’s New Hampshire primary, Democrats are scrambling to reconfigure how things will play out. Once thought a prohibitive favorite, 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden looks like he’s in freefall. Coming in fourth in Iowa and looking like a fourth or fifth place finish in New Hampshire, Biden’s campaign is kidding itself look ahead to Nevada and South Carolina. If Biden loses badly in New Hampshire, it could throw his entire campaign into a tailspin.
Schumer focuses on the Vindman twins and Sondland to divert attention away from Biden’s abysmal performance in Iowa and tomorrow in New Hampshire. There’s nothing Defense Department Inspector General Glenn Fine can do to salvage Biden’s sputtering campaign. Speaking to a New Hampshire voter today, Biden called her a college student a “lying, dog-face pony soldier” for asking a question about his electability. Biden’s claim to fame was his eight years as Obama’s Vice President and his six terms in the U.S. Senate. You’d think all that experience would help him answer questions on the campaign trail. Poking his finger in another constituent’s chest over questions about his son, Hunter, Biden’s showing he’s cracking under the pressure of the campaign. After losing badly in Iowa and next in New Hampshire, it’s reasonable for voters to question Biden’s electability.
Pelosi and Schumer can’t press ahead into the 2020 election by only attacking Trump. There’s a point where voters are jaded with Democrat-manufactured scandals like Russian collusion and impeachment. If they don’t pivot soon, no Democrat candidate will appeal to moderates and independents, assuring Trump’s reelection in November. What happens with Trump’s personnel moves isn’t subject to scandals like the Russian hoax or more recently Trump’s phone call with Zelensky. Democrats haven’t yet caught up to the reality that Trump was acquitted in the U.S. Senate, whether or not any Democrats voted for it. Pelosi and Schumer’s argument that all Republicans, except Romney, are unethical, unprincipled and violate their oaths-of-office defending Trump has turned off voters. Unless Democrats can focus on a positive alternative to Trump this November, Trump’s headed for four more years.
