Trump Report Card: Zogby says Trump’s no Nixon, removal impossible with good approvals

Like with former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, Zogby said that the Senate won’t remove a president with a growing approval rating like Trump’s. He’s not former President Richard Nixon, who at 23% approval, stepped down.

And conservative grader Jed Babbin dismissed the impeachment drive as a lot about nothing. “This is going to be a Seinfeld impeachment. Remember the running joke in Seinfeld that the sitcom was about nothing?” he said.

John Zogby
Grade D-

There is no way to spin this week for President Trump. Yes, his polling numbers are actually up in most polls — some of his highest approval ratings and averages yet.

But he painted his way into an impeachment corner, and there appears to be real evidence, real witnesses, and a White House staff who must be vomiting around the clock. He went to the United Nations to give a speech about foreign policy. No one listened, no one cared, no one will remember.

But everyone will remember that he is now close to being impeached. This will have to play out. The House of Representatives will probably present articles of impeachment in October (one month) so as not to drag this out.

But no way does Trump get convicted in the Senate. Not unless his polling numbers plummet. So again each side gets to make its point, not policy. Remember Nixon was at 23% when he left office in the face of certain impeachment. Hard to remove a president who is polling at 46%. The GOP tried that once with Bill Clinton, remember? Can Trump handle this pressure?”

Jed Babbin
Grade B

You’d never know it if you read the Washington Post or the New York Times, but this week was actually a pretty good one for President Trump.

Trump’s “Howdy, Modi” rally in Houston with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi helped boost relations with the world’s largest democracy. The two leaders spoke before a crowd of about 50,000, many or most of whom are Indian Americans. Modi spoke witheringly about Pakistan, which both America and India accuse of sponsoring and harboring a variety of terrorist networks.

Trump also gave a good speech at the United Nations General Assembly and led a meeting on religious freedom there.

All of that faded into obscurity in the aftermath of last week’s “whistleblower” complaint about Trump’s 25 July conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Congressional Democrats and other Trump haters in the media seized upon it as proof that Trump was trying to get help from a foreign government to steal the 2020 election. After days of haranguing, both a rough transcript of the call and the whistleblower complaint were declassified and unveiled. Both were devoid of illegal or impeachable conduct by Trump (there’s a treaty requiring legal cooperation in investigations and such between the U.S. and Ukraine) but more than enough for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to begin a formal impeachment inquiry. But into what?

This is going to be a Seinfeld impeachment. Remember the running joke in Seinfeld that the sitcom was about nothing? That’s what House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are running. Trump will be impeached by the House but not convicted by the Senate because there’s no basis on which to convict him in either the phone call with Zelensky or the whistleblower complaint. Meanwhile, he’ll be diverted from very important domestic and international matters by the impeachment proceedings. The impeachment mess will be the focus of every media outlet and Democratic presidential candidate all next year. Not that it’ll do them any good.

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