In an op-ed for Fox News, Gary Meltz, a former press secretary for House Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), opined that Democrats hoping that Robert Mueller’s final report would change the game as it pertains to impeaching Trump out of office were engaged in what could politely be termed “wishful thinking.” In the op-ed, Meltz urged Democrats to recognize that without a substantial shift among the voting population, Republicans in the Senate would not abandon the president.
“Understand, many Republicans already believe that while Donald Trump may not be the world’s most ethical person, he represents their best chance to have a government that reflects their conservative world view,” Meltz wrote. “The president’s own acting chief of staff, former Congressman Mick Mulvaney, said as much in 2016: ‘Yes, I’m supporting Donald Trump…I’m doing so as enthusiastically as I can, given the fact that I think he’s a terrible human being. But the choice on the other side is just as bad.’
“Impeachment is a political process,” Meltz reminded the Democrats. “Even if all the Republican Senators running for election in 2020 – and generally considered as potential targets for Democrats – voted to impeach the president to protect themselves politically, the Senate would still fall far short of a two-thirds majority required. This does not even take into consideration that a conservative Democrat, like Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, could vote to oppose impeachment.”
All of these are excellent points, of course, but Meltz – apparently in order to preserve his Democrat credentials – skips the most important point: That there is no reasonable basis for impeachment in the first place.
Okay, so let’s imagine that Robert Mueller is going to finish up his investigation and deliver a bombshell report to congressional leaders at some point next year. How is anyone outside of the die-hard Democratic Party establishment supposed to take it seriously?
This investigation has been laboring on for three years now, counting the FBI’s work before Mueller was brought on. And they’ve come up with nothing – zilch, zero, nada – connecting Trump to the Russian hack of the DNC. The only bad thing about that is…that’s what the WHOLE THING is supposed to be about! Now we’re going to impeach Trump because he wanted to build a tower in Moscow? Or no, because he paid off some porn stars? Oh, because his there-and-gone campaign manager was a tax cheat? You have to be kidding.
But even if – even IF – Mueller comes up with some sort of evidence to show that Trump colluded or that Trump obstructed justice, it is unlikely to move the political needle. And that’s because there remain far too many questions about the FBI’s bias during the 2016 election, and too many questions about Mueller and his team of “angry Democrats.” Once a witch hunt burns a hundred innocent girls to death, are we really supposed to get excited that they found an actual witch? How would we ever have any trust in their findings?
No, impeachment is a pipe dream for Democrats. And if they continue down this road, defeating Trump in the next election may turn into “wishful thinking” all on its own.
