Democratic presidential candidates face a choice between trying to use the Mueller report against President Trump or sticking to issues that appeal to a broader range of voters, such as healthcare and income inequality.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Friday went for the first option with a move that could energize anti-Trump segments of the base, calling for impeachment proceedings against Trump.
“The Warren campaign needs traction. This will help for a moment,” said David McCuan, professor and chairman of the political science department at Sonoma State University. “She may have missed her moment.”
Other candidates tiptoed around questions of impeachment.
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg told NBC News that, while there’s “evidence that this president deserves to be impeached,” he would leave the decision to Congress and focus on defeating Trump at the ballot box in 2020. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee also suggested Friday that impeachment should be an option.
Most candidates, though, followed the lead of top congressional Democrats with their response to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which was to proceed with investigations while setting aside the question of impeachment. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., subpoenaed the Justice Department on Friday for the full version of the report, and the committee is reportedly working on arrangements for hearing testimony from Mueller next month.
Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey on Thursday advertised and emailed petitions to supporters that called on the Trump administration to fulfill Democrats’ investigative demands. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., meanwhile, called on Attorney General William Barr to resign after what Swalwell called “a show of allegiance to the President over the American people.”
One risk Democrats face in calling for impeachment or otherwise taking a heavy-handed approach to the Mueller report is that it gives the Trump campaign fuel to paint Democrats as radicals.
“The I-word is not going to be a win for Democrats who want the nomination,” McCuan said. “It’s momentary red meat, and they have to finish the whole plate.”
Democratic strategist Jeff Hewitt told the Washington Examiner that there isn’t much of a benefit in calling for Trump’s impeachment other than to raise money.
“What the Mueller report does is it provides more evidence in the case of why Donald Trump shouldn’t be president,” Hewitt said. “It’s not enough to just bash Trump, they have to provide an alternative message to rally the voters.”
Some candidates have stuck to their campaign issues and largely set the Mueller report aside. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, for instance, ignored questions from reporters about the Mueller report at a campaign stop in South Carolina Friday.
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke tends to only talk about the Mueller investigation when asked about it rather than volunteering his opinion. Speaking to reporters in New Hampshire Thursday, O’Rourke noted that, out of the roughly 550 questions he’s answered at town hall events since he kicked off his campaign, only two or three of them concerned the Mueller investigation. Voters are more focused on other issues, he said.
“I don’t know that impeachment and those proceedings in the House and potential trial in the Senate is going to answer those questions for people. I think we can solve this once and for all in November of 2020,” O’Rourke said.
While the candidates may not have put a heavy focus on the report and its consequences for Trump on the campaign trail, they are expected to say something about it.
Democratic strategist Jim Manley said that candidates should expect to be asked to articulate their stance on the Mueller report and impeachment. “Saying nothing is not going to be an option from here on out,” he said.
