Tom Steyer is on a multimillion-dollar mission to impeach Donald Trump, but Democrats whose campaigns the California billionaire is helping bankroll aren’t keen to follow his lead.
Steyer, whose appeals you may have seen on TV, is spending $40 million on his “Need To Impeach” roadshow, with advertising and town halls around the country. But Democratic leaders in Congress and many candidates hoping to wrest House control from the Republicans shun the prospect of showy impeachment proceedings. Instead, they’re counting on pocketbook issues and a growing voter interest in checks on the GOP government in Washington.
The tightrope balance for Democrats underscores their dilemma. The question is how to maximize liberal anger against the president, who is under the cloud of a special counsel’s investigation, while not alienating Trump Country independents and moderate Republicans who are unhappy with him but often detest his critics even more.
Steyer’s largely freelancing effort is just one strain of a midterm cacophony where even tens of millions of dollars in outside spending can get lost in the noise. Trump already commands most of the attention. Republicans are eager to counterpunch. And as much as Democrats steer clear of impeachment talk, it does offer a release valve for liberal voter angst.
“It is the most important issue in the United States right now,” Steyer tells a crowd, nibbling on hors d’oeuvres in Atlanta before a wide-ranging discussion of “high crimes and misdemeanors” and Trump’s fitness to handle nuclear launch codes. “It’s about lawlessness and danger and urgency.”
But in sounding his impeachment alarms, the liberal, green-energy guru is also serving up an opportunity for Republicans to portray Democrats as having no agenda other than to undo the 2016 election.
“I hope Steyer goes everywhere in the country and I hope he buys $100 million of ads, and I hope he insists every Democrat sign a pledge to impeach the president,” says former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who led the GOP in impeaching President Bill Clinton in 1998, only to lose seats that November. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [contentcards url=”https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/apr/22/tom-steyer-bid-impeach-donald-trump-falls-flat-dem/” target=”_blank”]