Looking for their Nixon-Watergate moment, Democrats finally got the red meat they’ve wanted to impeach 73-year-old President Donald Trump. Ginning up a recently released whistleblower complaint about Trump’s July 25 conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asking him to investigate 76-year-old Democratic Party front-runner former Vice President Joe Biden and his 50-year-old son, Hunter, Democrats accused Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors. Churning their talking points on 24/7 cable news, Democrats hope to throw enough mud on Trump to win the 2020 presidential election. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) signaled she would back impeachment proceedings Sept. 24, Democrats jumped for joy, finally getting what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and other like-minded Democrats wanted to impeachment the president, something Pelosi resisted.
Pelosi’s Democrat caucus has been ready to impeach Trump on almost any grounds, talking about the arcane Emolument Clause, or the 1799 Logan Act, both accusing Trump of betraying his country. Pelosi said Trump, in asking Zelensky to probe Biden and his son, betrayed his oath, the Constitution and the rule of law. Pelosi said today she offered Trump and the country her “prayers,” getting too dramatic over the Democrats’ latest attempt to besmirch Trump. Trump was under an FBI counterintelligence investigation while he ran for president, accusing him of inappropriate ties to the Kremlin. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made the charges in the last presidential debate in Las Vegas, calling Trump a “Putin puppet.” FBI officials used Hillary’s paid opposition research AKA “the dossier,” to build their case against Trump.
Raising the issue of the Bidens’ involvement in Ukraine created denunciations in the Democrat Party and the media. Democrats contend that Trump was trying to interfere with the 2020 election by digging up dirt on Biden and Hunter. Over the Democrat-friendly airwaves, the pro-impeachment crowd has already convicted Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors, plenty for impeachment. No one in the pro-impeachment crowd wants to admit that the Obama’s White House and Hillary’s campaign went to inside Russian sources, namely, former MI6 agent, Christopher Steele, to dredge up dirt on Trump. Former FBI Director James Comey, fired by Trump May 9, 2017, insisted the FBI investigated serious charges against Trump during the 2016 campaign and during the first three years of his presidency. Yet not one Democrat-friendly media cares about the FBI’s discredited probe into Trump.
New revelations about the whistleblower complaint and Trump’s admissions about talking to Zelensky have increased the public’s receptivity to impeachment. Before the whistleblower complaint, the public opposed impeachment 53% to 39%. After the complaint, the public is split 49% favoring, to 46% opposing impeachment, mirroring the Democrats and media’s feeding frenzy backing impeachment. As long as the media tries-and-convicts Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors in the press, pro-impeachment poll numbers will go up. Once Republicans and their attorneys argue that Trump did nothing outlawed in the Constitution or the federal election code, voters’ opinions will change again. Pelosi’s Sept. 24 move to back impeachment sways public opinion, especially among anti-Trump voters. When Republicans push back against Democrats’ in any hearings, public opinion will swing back to Trump.
When Special Counsel Robert Mueller was in full swing with his probe of Trump’s alleged ties to Moscow, Democrats and the anti-Trump press swayed public opinion to toward impeachment or at least expecting negative results from Mueller’s investigation. When Mueller released his final report March 23, Democrats didn’t get the smoking gun they hoped for. For 22-months, Democrats and the press accused Trump of Russian collusion, until Mueller said he found no evidence. Instead of touting Mueller’s credibility for nearly two years, Democrats refused to accept Muller’s findings, cherry picking the report to accuse Trump of obstruction of justice. Once cleared by Mueller, Trump engaged Zelensky, believing that the Russian collusion scandal was behind him. Talking to Zelensky was Trump’s way of saying he was finally cleared of criminal wrongdoing,
Democrats have what looks like a “smoking gun” but could easily backfire once Trump’s attorney’s argue that president did nothing wrong. If there’s no legal basis to Democrats’ complaint, it’s going to make them look foolish to voters. “Polling in the middle of a political hurricane is ridiculous,” political analyst Stuart Rothenberg said yesterday. Democrats hope to capitalize on the mass hysteria now sweeping Capitol Hill. When legal experts get to weigh in raising doubts about Democrats’ indictment of Trump’s phone call to Zelensky, it’s going to make them look like they rushed to judgment. Under pressure from her Party’s left wing, Pelosi was reluctant to pull the trigger on impeachment, largely because it could hurt Democrats. If legal experts agree that Trump did nothing wrong, it could expose Democrats political motives to throw mud before the 2020 election.
