Trump started his Saturday by saying that there is not much support for impeachment and took a swipe at Democrat Adam Schiff, the US House Intelligence Committee chairman and the person leading the impeachment inquiry against the president, warning him that he “will be compelled to testify should the Democrats decide, despite the fact that my presidential conversations were totally appropriate (perfect), to go forward with the Impeachment Hoax. Polls now turned very strongly against Impeachment!”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 23, 2019
The President also mentioned an Emerson College Poll that suggested that among independents, 49% oppose and only 34% support impeachment.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 23, 2019
David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University, says that Trump appears to be sending mixed messages when it comes to the Democratic House impeachment hearings.
“Version one is to say that the hearings are a fraud and that he does not expect the House to impeach him. Version two is daring the House to impeach him so that he can have a trial in the Senate and acquit him. Both versions are being circulated so that he can look like a winner no matter what happens”, Schultz noted.
“If the House opts not to impeach and instead takes other action such as censure or going after his subordinates, Trump declares himself a winner because they did not impeach”, the professor pointed out.
However, Trump is the fourth president in US history to face a formal impeachment inquiry, along with Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Richard Nixon. According to Schultz, if Trump is impeached in the House, it will seriously “damage his legacy”, even if the Senate acquits him.
“Whatever the House does will have implications for the 2020 election and Trump’s legacy in his dual messages are efforts to combat both of these problems”, Schultz stressed.
In his turn, Joshua Dressler, a law professor at Ohio State University, says it’s now up to the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate to make the final decision.
“At this point it seems fairly clear that President Trump will be impeached by the House of Representatives”, Dressler stated.
But Trump’s party and his supporters are continuing to stick by him:
“It is even clearer at this time that there will be insufficient votes in the Senate to convict him of high crimes and misdemeanours. The Republicans appear prepared to stand by him. There is no evidence that they are weakening in their support. There is no evidence that voters who supported Trump in the past have weakened their support and unless that happens at the last moment, Republicans will not vote to convict”, the law professor concluded.
Public impeachment hearings wrapped up on Friday and the House Intelligence Committee in charge of the probe will now begin drafting a report on the inquiry and submit it to the House Judiciary Committee.
The Judiciary Committee will review the report and decide if the evidence warrants a House vote on impeachment. If the House votes to impeach Trump, the process will move to a Senate trial.
