The impeachment of Donald Trump is blessedly coming to an end. It was a shoddy impeachment push by Democrats. It was based on hearsay. It was hyper-partisan from the beginning. We all know Democrats have wanted to impeach Trump since 2016. He beat Hillary. That cannot be allowed to stand. Russian collusion was thrown out the window after ex-Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed a report showing zero evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. And now, we have this offshoot allegation: President Trump allegedly threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine unless they opened an investigation into Hunter Biden. Democrats picked 17 witnesses. They pushed it through the House. And now we’re dealing with this circus in the Senate—the Republican Senate which will not vote to remove Trump.
We won. The Democrats just don’t know it yet. After their case failed to gain traction with the chamber and the wider public—Democrats tried to pull the unprecedented move of bringing more witnesses into this clown show. That’s not how this works. If Democrats wanted more witnesses, they should have argued that in the discovery process. They screwed up. You don’t get to denigrate the Senate to satisfy your anti-Trump lust. On Friday, Jan. 31, it was game over.
Soon-to-be-retired Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced he was a “no” vote on more witnesses. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Mitt Romney (R-UT), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) were also on the fence. Even if all three voted with Democrats in support of this soft coup, we would still win. Alexander was the wild card. Murkowski eventually voted against the Democrats’ motion for new witnesses. It was a Fail Mary, and McConnell knew it the day of the vote. He simply uttered three words: “big day today.” Yeah, that probably set off Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and company.
McConnell as he walked in “big day today”
— Marianne LeVine (@marianne_levine) January 31, 2020
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“Big day today,” @senatemajldr Mitch McConnell tells me as he arrives at his Senate office for the day. #impeachment @ABCPolitics
— Devin Dwyer (@devindwyer) January 31, 2020
All time greatest pic.twitter.com/X1TZqISIby
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) January 31, 2020
Schiff, one of the Democrats' impeachment managers and chair of the House Intelligence Committee, was one of the first to know about the Ukraine allegation because the so-called whistleblower contacted his staff. This person is reportedly a CIA agent, a registered Democrat, and had worked with a 2020 candidate. This person did no hear the call; it was all second-hand information. Schiff knew of the complaint’s contents and prepared to weaponize them before it was formally filed. Talk about collusion. Talk about deep state antics, right? Yeah, reason number 987 that shows this impeachment push as a Trump deranged witch hunt. Swing state voters see it. They’re opposed to it—and it’s pushing key states Democrats need to win in 2020 further away from them. It’s also pushed Trump’s approval numbers upward. Nice work, you beautiful fools. No, seriously, keep being Trump deranged. It’s only an in-kind contribution factory for the Trump 2020 campaign.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a Democratic wild card in this saga, delivered remarks on where he stands on the final vote set for this Wednesday, the day after the State of the Union. Cortney covered it here.
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