Nancy Pelosi isn’t stupid. The speaker of the House knows her party screwed up their ridiculous and desperate impeachment push, apparently not having thought things fully through.
Immediately after her party voted, with a few Democratic defections, to impeach President Trump, she threatened to withhold sending both approved articles to the Senate for a trial.
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“So far, we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us,” she told reporters, just moments after House Democrats charged the president with abuse of power (not a crime) and obstructing Congress (not a crime). “We’ll see what happens over there.”
Wow! What was the purpose of rushing the impeachment process if the charges might not even be sent to the Senate, where they’re now supposed to go for a trial?
The answer is obvious. Public support for impeachment and removal cratered after the congressional hearings last month, particularly among independent voters in swing states. Trump’s national approval, all the while, has ticked up. And the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are in no better position now than they were before this circus. If anything, they’re looking a lot worse.
When Pelosi finally accepts the inevitable, here’s what she knows will happen: At a minimum, the Republican-controlled Senate will do a quick show trial and acquit Trump on the absurd charges brought against him. At most, Senate Republicans will use the opportunity to over and over again beat it into the public that, yes, Democrats were engaged in a witch hunt and, yes again, Trump had every right and reason to ask the president of Ukraine about both Joe Biden and the 2016 election.
I know, it’s a sticky situation. But she put herself there, and the delay isn’t going to save her or her party.
