Our White House Report Card finds President Trump facing impeachment, and maybe that’s not as bad as it seems.
Grader and Democratic pollster John Zogby said he’s not sure impeachment will hurt the president. In giving the president a C- for the week, Zogby said, “I am not convinced that he will lose from this.”
Ditto for conservative grader Jed Babbin. “The House impeachment and resulting Senate trial will run over the presidential primary season next year. It’s hard to believe that helps their effort to beat Trump at the polls next November,” he said.
John Zogby
Grade C-
From the Proverbs, we learn that ‘as ye sow, so shall ye reap.’
President Trump is the recipient of a formal vote by the House of Representatives to hold an impeachment investigation and for the hearings to be public. This is what he has wanted, and I am not convinced that he will lose from this. At the same time, his party is behind him publicly by both voting against the House resolution and by charging partisanship and a Democratic coup.
“…surrounded by enemies and spies catching and perverting every word that falls from my lips or flows from my pen, and inventing where facts fail them.” -Thomas Jefferson’s reflections on Washington, D.C. in a letter to his daughter Martha.
Some things never change, dad!— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) October 31, 2019
Meanwhile, the president is buoyed by the news of 128,000 new jobs, which exceeded expectations, and by new polls showing him trailing Democratic front-runners by only a few points, and by a daughter who links him with Thomas Jefferson. Not everyone gets that kind of love.
Jed Babbin
Grade F
The week was another series of ups and downs for President Trump on Syria, the economy, and impeachment. The best thing that can be said is that his opponents didn’t do any better.
The week began with the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. That was a major blow to the terrorist network but not a fatal one.
Trump’s policy is on Syria is still a mystery. This week, he took a strange neo-colonialist bounce by saying we’re going to not only prevent the Islamic State from seizing Syrian oil: We were going to take it for ourselves. In a Chicago speech, Trump said, “We’re keeping the oil — remember that … We want to keep the oil. $45 million a month? Keep the oil. We’ve secured the oil.”
Our nation has never gone to war for profit or to establish colonies on foreign soil. Does Trump mean to abandon 243 years of American history?
“While we’re Creating Jobs and Killing Terrorists, the Democrat Party has gone completely insane.” – President @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/gShmLXRQoM
— Team Trump (@TeamTrump) November 2, 2019
The U.S. economy only grew 1.9% last quarter, below expectations. Part of the reason is the enormous growth of the national debt. For the first time ever, the national debt exceeded 100% of GDP. Trump doesn’t seem at all interested in curbing federal spending or borrowing.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally held a vote on impeachment. The House voted along party lines to subcontract its impeachment proceedings against Trump to several committees, though the principal action remains in Rep. Adam Schiff’s Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Pelosi and Schiff were reportedly aiming to impeach Trump before year’s end, but parsing the effort out to the committees makes that unlikely. More likely is that the House impeachment and resulting Senate trial will run over the presidential primary season next year. It’s hard to believe that helps their effort to beat Trump at the polls next November.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book is We Are Many, We Are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America. Follow him on Twitter @TheJohnZogby
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
