Impeachment boosting GOP fundraising, volunteers, votes
WND Staff
November 1, 2019
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with the political impact of Republicans' impeachment of Bill Clinton in mind, expressed reluctance to move ahead with an impeachment investigation in the months prior to her party's current investigation of President Trump, wary of it providing a boost for the GOP in the 2020 elections.
The realization of her worst fears may already be underway, according to top Republican officials.
Impeachment, the Republican National Committee says, is padding already record-breaking donations and reeling in some Democrats to the GOP fold, reports the Washington Examiner's Paul Bedard.
"The longer this goes, we are seeing more and more voters shift to supporting the president and recognizing that this is a totally partisan endeavor by the Democrats," said Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
"At every level, we have increased our share of people who want to contribute and invest,” she told Bedard in advance of this weekend's test of the 2020 GOP get-out-the vote effort.
House Democrats, in a partisan vote Thursday, approved a resolution to formalized the impeachment inquiry and establish "ground rules."
McDaniel notes that Trump's approval ratings in 17 key states have increased 3 points.
Polls gauging Americans' support of the impeachment investigation have varied according to how the question is asked. Most have asked, "Do you support or oppose impeaching Trump?" But a new poll by Suffolk University for USA Today that gave respondents three options found just 36 percent say the House should vote to impeach.
RNC officials launched Friday their National Week of Action in which some 75,000 new volunteers and RNC staff in every state will test the party's the 2020 plan to get voters to the polls to vote for Trump.
McDaniel, the Examiner reported, said that about 7%-10% of those attending Trump campaign rallies have not voted in four or more of the past elections. And, significantly, 30% are self-declared Democrats.
"These are new people who are coming out. They haven’t always voted Republican and haven’t always voted," she told Bedard.
Meanwhile, after the impeachment vote Thursday, CNN Political Director David Chalian warned of a backlash in Democratic-held House districts where Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.
He said Republicans "are pouncing to hang that vote around their neck because in their districts back home where Donald Trump won this idea of impeaching or removing him is not a popular one."
In an interview Thursday with the Washington Examiner, Trump said the Democratic impeachment has "energized my base like I’ve never seen before."
He called the impeachment proceedings a personal insult.
"I think [impeachment is] a very dirty word, it’s a word that I can’t believe that the do-nothing Democrats are trying to pin on me, and it’s a disgrace. And I think it’s going to backfire on them,” he said from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, with a small stack of press clippings in front of him and a glass of diet soda on ice to his right.
"I did nothing wrong, and for them to do this is a disgrace," he said. "To me, the word impeachment’s a very ugly word."