Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii set herself apart from most of her 2020 Democratic primary competitors this week by throwing cold water on her party’s efforts to remove President Trump from office. Her argument was that it could backfire badly in the presidential election.
“[The] House impeachment of the president has greatly increased the likelihood that Donald Trump will remain the president for the next 5 years,” she said on Tuesday.
“We all know that Trump is not going to be found guilty and removed from office by the U.S. Senate. It’s not going to happen,” she added.
In 2020, we will have a new president in the White House. How many of you do NOT want that to be Donald Trump? I certainly don’t. Unfortunately, the House impeachment of the president has greatly increased the likelihood Trump will remain the president for the next 5 years … pic.twitter.com/FRRlbWHyo7
— Tulsi Gabbard ? (@TulsiGabbard) December 31, 2019
“Second, the impeachment, in my view, will actually increase his support among voters, and it’s going to make him harder to defeat,” Gabbard said. “Furthermore, the House impeachment has increased the likelihood that Republicans will take over the House of Representatives, so I’m really concerned that, because of this House impeachment, that we will end up not only with Donald Trump as president from 2020 to 2024, we’ll actually end up with a Republican-controlled Senate and a Republican-controlled House. This is going to be a disaster for our country.”
She concluded, “I know that we can beat Trump in 2020. But our sights must be set on a higher goal than just defeating Trump.”
Compare this to some of the impeachment-happy Democratic primary candidates, including the ones who have gone so far as to claim that Trump is the “most corrupt” American president in history (he is not).
Gabbard’s remarks this week are reminiscent of when tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, another unlikely 2020 contender, said in December, “I’m pro-impeachment, but this is going to be a loser.”
“Not a single Republican has given any indication that they’re in fact-finding mode,” Yang told journalist Matt Taibbi and writer Katie Halper. “They’re all in defend-the-president mode. You need literally dozens of Republican senators to switch sides when the trial starts, which we’ve gotten zero indication is going to happen.”
He added: “The more this drags on, the more danger there is of two things: Number one, Donald Trump comes out of this and says, ‘Vindicated! Totally exonerated!’ And number two, we are wasting precious time where we should be creating a positive vision that Americans are excited about solving the problems that got Donald Trump elected, and beat him in 2020.”
Anti-Trump social media activists have trashed both Yang and Gabbard for questioning the Democratic Party’s impeachment efforts. Yet, I suspect both candidates would say the grief they catch online is worth it to break with the party line precisely because it allows them to offer primary voters something different, a trait that has allowed them both to outlast higher-profile 2020 Democrats.
Left-wing Twitter warriors may hate Yang and Gabbard for saying impeachment is a losing issue, but you tell that to the $16.5 million Yang raised in the 4th quarter and the $3.4 million Gabbard raised in that same time period. Tell it also to their polling, which, honestly, is pretty decent, considering they were both unknowns prior to the primary and now that they’ve outlasted Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris, and Julian Castro.
There is a reason why Gabbard and Yang have succeeded where Democratic senators and governors have failed. They actually have something different to say.
