6/11/2019

DEMS/IMPEACHMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump has no direct control over his impeachment, but that’s not stopping him from trying to weaponize the process. It’s shaping up to be a classic Trump scheme — counterattack, demean the opposition, predict absolute victory, reduce the argument to a few talking points, and never, ever, cede ground. And it’s a messaging strategy born of necessity. Since Trump and his team have no say in whether Democrats launch impeachment proceedings, they’re trying instead to bend the chatter around the issue to their advantage, knowing the topic will dominate the national conversation as the 2020 election ramps up. A dozen people around Trump said the approach is rooted in recent history and the president’s own love for a fight. Trump has discussed with aides how a cascading series of investigations helped propel President Bill Clinton to a second term in 1996 and then led to historic setbacks for House Republican in the 1998 midterms when they ran on a platform to impeach the Democratic president. Trump himself is also telling people that anything House Democrats write into impeachment articles against him will fall short of the loosely defined ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ threshold spelled out in the Constitution, making him confident of an acquittal in the GOP-led Senate.”

Darren Samuelsohn, “Trash-talking Trump aims to weaponize impeachment,” Politico, June 11, 2019 5:05 am