Impeachment Crusade Is Bound to Backfire on the Left

As the impeachment season drones on, and Democrats continue down the path of self-destruction, one wonders if there is an exit ramp for them.

Before Donald Trump was even the Republican nominee for president, people in positions of power started their malevolent acts against him and his campaign, mostly in private. Democrats and the left entered this path and have been locked onto that course for more than three years now.

Democrats have publicly sprinted down this path since the day after Trump was elected. It is well documented, for instance, that Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, expressed his desire to impeach the president within mere months of his assuming office.

Hillary Clinton then stoked the “Russian collusion” hoax to explain what was inexplicable to her: the American voters had rejected her in favor of political outsider Donald J. Trump.

Congress is moving to impeach the president. But will their plan to remove him from office succeed? Find out more now >>

The left’s first major goals out of the box were (1) to remove the president from office and, if that didn’t work, (2) declare Trump’s presidency to be illegitimate due to foreign influence in the 2016 election.

Friendly left-wing media outlets constantly reinforced the collusion narrative. Meanwhile, leftist groups exploited the Antifa and Resistance movements to cause political unrest. Some educators even encouraged their students to express outrage that Clinton lost and Trump won.

The earliest ideas often receive the most traction, even if they are not the best ideas. Suboptimal trajectories build up over time, not necessarily because they are the right course, but because they were first and get locked in even as better options come along.

So here we are. It’s 2019 and Democrats have committed themselves to expelling Trump from office, or if that fails, simply dragging his name through the mud.

It is folly to try to remove a president from office when the people will be able to make their own decision in less than a year. And despite Democrats’ best efforts to throw allegations at him, Trump receives consistently favorable numbers in regular polling.

Recent polling further suggests that voters are souring on the idea of impeachment.

This week, the House Judiciary Committee is bringing in several law professors to harangue the committee and to provide justification for impeachment. Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has suggested that he might need to bring in additional witnesses.

Every time he has brought in witnesses promising blockbuster revelations, he has only produced duds. Democrats have yet to see these hearings produce any overwhelming evidence in their favor.

An alarm bell should be going off among Democrats when their chosen path to remove a sitting president is not bicameral or bipartisan, and opposition to impeachment is both. The facts scream that they are marching on a suboptimal path that might lead them over a cliff.

Why do Democrats persist?

It is likely that they believe the short-term cost of political embarrassment and demoralizing their base is too high. But stubbornly adhering to their chosen course is reckless if they want to appeal to a broader America. This won’t end well for them.

COMMENTARY BY

Rep. Andy Biggs

Rep. Andy Biggs a Republican, represents Arizona’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House. He is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and serves on the Judiciary and Science, Space and Technology committees. Twitter: @RepAndyBiggsAZ.

Ted Budd

Ted Budd is the U.S. representative for North Carolina’s 13th district. Twitter: @RepTedBudd.

RELATED ARTICLE: House GOP Report Contends Impeachment Drive Advances Rule by Bureaucrats

A Note for our Readers:

As we speak, Congress is moving to impeach the president.

We do not have all the facts yet, but based on what we know now, there does not seem to be an impeachable offense.

The questions stand: In drafting the Constitution, how did America’s founders intend for impeachment to be used? How does the impeachment process work, and what can history tell us about whether or not President Trump faces the real threat of being removed from office?

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