By David Kamioner | January 2, 2020
During a CNN interview on Thursday, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) — considered a somewhat moderate member of the House — opined that he would “certainly” support an indefinite postponement of the Senate trial of President Donald Trump [1].
Related: Seven Top Political Predictions for 2020 [2]
“To send over the articles when [Senate] Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has declared that he will breach his oath, that he will not do impartial justice in accordance with the Constitution — that [he] plans to act on cue and in accordance with the defendant in this case — would be no trial at all,” said Doggett.
The congressman was almost certainly lying through his teeth, in this analyst’s view.
First of all, he remembers that Dems played even more one-sided hardball during the Senate trial of President Bill Clinton back in 1998. So he surely knows the hypocritical absurdity of his argument.
But Doggett, in his remarks, is almost certainly doing the bidding of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) by sending up a trial balloon to see how the media, the hard-Left, and the rest of her own party would react to her essentially waving the white flag of surrender on removing Trump from office — and using the fixed trial talking point as the rationale.
New post (Dem Rep. Lloyd Doggett: "I Would Certainly Support" Withholding Impeachment Articles; Could Be More | Video) has been published on National Polls – https://t.co/AIwA7TC5wh [3] pic.twitter.com/HbDQaztH5g [4]
— JayAlan (@jayoverhol) January 2, 2020 [5]
However, regardless of the reason used, the voting public would take an extremely dim view of dragging the government and the nation through three years of investigations, hearings, and an impeachment exercise just to admit in the end that there is not enough there, and never was, to accomplish the goal of the conviction of the president in a Senate trial.
Related: Impeachment Should ‘Only Be Used in the Most Serious’ of Cases [1]
Presidential election battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, and Wisconsin — where impeachment already is not popular — could see a 3 percent to 5 percent swing toward the president, in this analyst’s view.
That would be more than enough to keep those red states the same shade in November 2020 — and perhaps bring over states on the edge like Nevada, New Mexico, and Minnesota.
Pelosi understands this — and is seeking a way out of her self-created electoral quicksand while seeming to pull out of the process because of fairness issues.
The problem for her is, nobody is buying it.
This piece originally appeared in LifeZette [6] and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette:
A Telling Tale of Two Embassies [7]
Seven Top Political Predictions for 2020 [8]
Pope Apologizes for Slapping a Woman’s Hand [9]