The Democrats have appeared to be jonesin’ for impeachment since Trump got sworn in.
Just look here.
Poor Al Green’s been about to explode over it (here).
And it looks to be finally happenin’.
Over a phone call.
Why now?
Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden thinks he knows, and he explained it to CNN’s Chris “I’m not afraid-O” Cuomo:
“Democrats don’t really want to impeach the President. They want to be under an impeachment process throughout the next election cycle. Democrats know that if they vote for impeachment, even if they are able to muster up the votes…when that goes to the Senate, the Senate will acquit the President. They know that.”
That isn’t hard to believe.
And it’s a breeze to imagine the whole maneuver is gonna spectacularly backfire: As I covered previously, Meghan McCain pointed out Wednesday that further discussions of Ukraine will drag Joe Biden through the mud, which will give Elizabeth Warren a boost (here). Furthermore, a recent poll shows Elizabeth 2 points ahead of Joe (here).
And if Elizabeth faces Trump on that ultimate stage, Donald J. will open his mouth and swallow her whole. In my opinion, she has no chance against that guy one-on-one.
To be clear, that’s not a put-down. I’m just saying — she ain’t a Terminator.Neither was my great grandmother, but I liked her.
And Lance likes the idea of not going down the path of impeachment, which — in his view — is a distraction from taking care of business:
“Why waste all this time and these resources, why not get to work for the American people. All I heard from Democrats when we took office — I’m a freshman, all my freshman colleagues across the aisle said, ‘Lance, I want to work with you, we want to get to work for the American people, we want to put all this partisanship behind.’ But now we’re talking about impeaching the President. It’s outrageous.”
The congressman also said the House got stocked with moderate Dems before the midterms, which further highlights the boneheadedness of a drive to the impeachment hoop.
The Daily Wire reports:
The Texas congressman explained that more than 30 Democrats in the House currently represent congressional districts that voted for Trump during the 2016 election cycle. The Democratic Party largely gained its House majority after a wave of the party’s moderate candidates were elected in those purple districts during the 2018 election cycle.With the 2020 election on the horizon, many of the more moderate House Democrats have feared that voters’ distaste for impeachment could put the House majority back in the hands of the GOP. Accordingly, the party still does not seem to have the required 218 votes needed to impeach the president.
According to Lance, there’s a whole lot of stalling on the part of Dems as 2020 looms:
“Some of these bills — most all of them actually — are bills that Republicans wanted to work with Democrats on, but Democrats know that if we work across the aisle and actually have a bill that we’re all in unison on, then the President might actually sign it. God forbid the President signs something that the House passes, because then we’d have to give the President a victory. Democrats won’t go for that.”
For example:
“The U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement — they won’t even take it up because they know it’s bipartisan, because they know the votes are there and if it passes the House, it sails through the Senate and the President signs it. The President can declare victory, and that’s something the Democrats won’t allow.”