Dem's Impeachment Idiocy Could Doom Bernie, Warren
6-8 Week Long Trial During Iowa, New Hampshire...
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By: Saagar Enjeti
Most of you know how I feel about impeachment. If you don’t, I summed it up on the show this morning. It is fundamentally a foreign policy disagreement between the deep state and the Trump administration on the wisdom of military aid to Ukraine.
The second part of this monologue however is what I’ll focus on today. The entire strategy is a true disaster for the U.S. Senators who are in the race, namely frontrunners Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The House of Representatives appears inclined to have a final vote in the chamber on impeachment by Christmas. Meaning that the Senate will be compelled to take up the matter as a trial in the chamber sometime around January.
Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr told reporters Tuesday that a trial will last from 6-8 weeks. Not only that, but the trial is mandated to last 6 days a week in the middle of the day AND all Senators must be in attendance for the proceedings.
That gives these candidates almost no time in which they would be able to get out of Washington and campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire during literally the most critical phase of the Democratic primary. It might as well be a boon to Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg.
As author Ed Kilgore over at NYMag points out, if the trial starts on the same day the Clinton impeachment trial began and ends at the same point:
It would encompass both the Iowa caucuses (February 3) and the New Hampshire primary (February 11). If it started later or ran longer, it could directly interfere with the Nevada caucuses (February 22), the South Carolina primary (February 29), or — worst-case scenario — the 12 states (including California and Texas) holding primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday (March 3).
Bernie and Warren won’t benefit politically from their attendance. As Kilgore points out
During the trial, unless precedents are ignored, all senators get to do is to send written questions to be posed by the House managers or the president’s attorneys, and then stand up and vote “guilty” or “not guilty” when the deal goes down. Not much room for showboating there.
We all know how this trial is going to end. 20 Republican Senators are not going to convict Donald Trump. So congratulations I guess Democrats? You just dramatically hurt the campaign operations for two of your leading candidates.