Using this Ukraine whistleblower nonsense as an excuse, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has finally caved to the worst elements of her Democratic caucus, promising Tuesday that they were ready to move forward with a formal impeachment inquiry of Donald J. Trump. Pelosi has been resisting this call to impeach for months, and not because she holds a special place in her heart for the president. No, Pelosi believes, quite rightly, that impeachment will be political suicide for the Democrats in 2020. There’s no “there” there, and a single phone call to the Ukrainian president has not changed that calculus one iota. Assuming that Pelosi has now put Democrats on a path from which they cannot escape, she may have just cost them the next election.
“This week, the President has admitted to asking the President of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically. The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the President’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections,” Pelosi said. “Today, I am announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. The President must be held accountable. No one is above the law.”
Granted, there are a few wary Democrats and pundits wondering if Pelosi’s remarks actually change anything about what the party is doing. After all, was it not just last week that Jerry Nadler and the House Judiciary Committee went to great lengths to establish procedures for their formal impeachment inquiry? How does Pelosi’s statement alter what was already happening?
Logistically, that’s a matter of some conjecture. Realistically, though? Politically? Pelosi’s backing changes everything. She has now officially caught her party between a rock and a hard place: They must either impeach – which would be disastrous – or they must fail to impeach – which may be the only thing worse than succeeding. They can no longer fiddle about and play this game with their frothing base, where they pretend to be doing something that they aren’t actually doing. It’s put up or shut up time.
The media will do everything in its power to move public opinion, but it’s hard to imagine that there’s much room for improvement. Right now, Democrats are moving forward with impeachment, a measure that only about 35% of the public supports. The media will try to bump that number up beyond 50%, so beware the onslaught of fake news coming your way. Nonetheless, the media tried this already with the Russia conspiracy hoax, which is where most Americans realized that they were full of baloney. With what credibility will they make the case for Trump’s “treason” this time?
If Democrats impeach, the Senate will acquit, leaving Trump with a broad path to re-election. If Democrats fail to impeach, they will not only cost themselves the election, they will leave the door wide open to the socialist inmates desperately trying to seize power.
Nancy Pelosi just made the mistake of a lifetime.
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