Despite their dire warnings earlier this year that President Trump’s foreign policy endangered the United States and assured that the 2020 elections would be riddled with foreign election interference, House Democrats have now essentially dropped their investigative efforts into the Trump administration’s Ukraine dealings.
The drawdown, which has seen Democrats decline to make new witness requests or file relevant subpoenas since the conclusion of the Senate impeachment trial, could be a tacit acknowledgement that the probes wouldn’t be politically helpful as the 2020 presidential field narrows. Amid impeachment proceedings, a Gallup poll found that support for both President Trump and the Republican Party had risen to historic highs.
However, Democrats have insisted that their previous statements still hold true, and that they are merely acceding to legal and political realities.
“There is nothing that Donald Trump can do that would cause [Senate Republicans] to convict him of high crimes and misdemeanors,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told Politico. “So that has caused everybody in the House to take a deep breath and figure out what our next steps are.”
Added Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.: “I would argue that impeachment actually served its purpose. It highlighted for people what we’re dealing with here and what the stakes are.”
Still, there was no question that top Democrats had only recently touted impeachment not as a method of raising awareness, but of averting a grave national security threat.
“The president’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., remarked on the Senate floor in January. – READ MORE
Listen to the insightful Thomas Paine Podcast Below --