Today we enter the decisive phase of the impeachment process in the House of Representatives. If during this public hearings phase, the House Democrats succeed in convincing the people of the United States that President Trump should, indeed, be impeached and removed from office, it might sway enough Senate Republicans that he will not be acquitted. Otherwise there will be what will be seen as a purely partisan impeachment in the House followed by a purely partisan acquittal in the Senate.
Presently, a narrow majority of Americans and 87% of Democrats think President Trump should be impeached while only 7% of Republicans do. It should be kept in mind that 87% of Democrats is a narrower slice of the American people than the 71% of Democrats who thought Nixon should be impeached—the percentage of independents (who more closely mirror the American people as a whole) in the population has risen considerably while the percentage of either Democrats or Republicans has declined.
Update
Relevant: Politico reports that a recent poll finds 81% of Americans “unmovable” in their views on impeachment. We have, what?, three weeks to find out. It will be a long three weeks.
Is it the decisive phase?
Even after the trial is over, the campaigns will be arguing over Trump’s fitness for office until Nov 2020 and possibly Nov 2024.
There’s every possibility of a 2nd, a 3rd impeachment while Trump is in office.
Indeed, impeachment could be for the Democrats what repealing the ACA was to the Republicans.
Indeed, repealing legislation, the ACA, or impeaching the POTUS, DJT. – which is significantly more extreme?
I’m done with the Democrats, These so called “dreamers,†deserve relief and citizenship . But the house denied them, holding out for open borders.
“But the house denied them, holding out for open borders.”
They offered funding for the wall in return for DACA. I guess when the Democrats offer to fund the wall that is the same as open borders. When Republicans want the wall it is border security, or something.
Steve
Democrats offering 25 billion funding for the wall is pretty deceptive.
Democrats offered a projected 25 billion over 10 years in funding in the discretionary budget. Given Congress must appropriate the discretionary budget every year and changes funding priorities all the time, it means the offer was for funding of about 2.5 billion for 1 year. Trump wanted a trust fund like social security / Medicare / highway whose funds are not subject to the yearly budget cycle; that got nowhere.
Also, what is meant by DACA, currently DACA grants legal status on those it covers. Democrats has always demanded DACA + citizenship, which opens a whole bunch of issues that citizens can sponsor their relatives, including those who brought these people here.
curious,
Thanks for greater detail and clarification about the Dems “generous†offer, as Steve always brings this up as a some kind of relevant counterpoint that was cavalierly rejected by a partisan president. As I recall, Trump offered a far more comprehensive deal including DACA reform, chain migration, border security, axing lottery immigration, all which would deliver substantial relief to our ongoing immigration problems. The Dems just brushed it aside.
IOW, Trump was offered a guaranteed $2.5 billion and he turned it down. He had a good shot at another $22.5 billion if he just didn’t act like an A hole. But he didn’t get the perfect deal he wanted. IOW, he couldn’t compromise even to get what was supposed to be his number one priority. (Lets remember that Mexico is supposed to pay for the wall anyway.)
Steve
Steve