The Political Insider

By Maureen Mackey | December 14, 2019

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in an appearance on the Fox News Channel on Friday, spelled out exactly what’s going on in this rush by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the other House Democrats to try to kick President Donald Trump out of office.

“They’ve spent so much time trying to figure out how they could attack the president — they made it sound like they had all of these things come together when in reality they had nothing,” she said.

“All of the witnesses that came forward [before the House Intelligence and House Judiciary Committees] — none of them really saw anything because nothing took place.”

“At the end of the day, the president did nothing wrong and they are grasping at straws to try to figure out how they can impeach him.”

“It’s exactly like Nancy Pelosi said last night [meaning Thursday night]. They’ve been working on this for two-and-a-half years. She made that loud and clear, that this had nothing to do with the Ukraine [phone] call [on July 25] and everything to do with trying to take out a president they simply don’t like.”

“That’s not what the impeachment process is about, and frankly, the American people are smarter and better than that.”

Related: Whatever Happened to Dems’ Vow That Impeachment Must Be Bipartisan?

“And I think that’s why you’re seeing such a shift in the polls in the president’s favor.”

Two days ago, Newsweek reported that ahead of the prospect of his impeachment, Trump “is enjoying a small decrease in strong disapproval measures among independents, while public opinion among Democrat and Republican voters has remained relatively steady, according according to a new poll.”

The poll the publication was referring to is the latest Reuters/Ipsos Core Political online survey, which was conducted on December 9 and 10. It questioned a cross section of people that included supporters of both major parties as well as neutrals.

One question was: “Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president?”

The results showed that 62 percent of independents — those voters who do not favor either major party — disapproved of how Trump is handling his job as president. This figure is unchanged from the Ipsos survey carried out on November 13.

“However, when asked about the levels of discontent with Trump, the number of independents who “strongly disapprove” of Trump actually went down — from 48 percent to 38 percent,” Newsweek reported.

Other polls show that “little has changed since the start of the public hearings.”

Related: Pelosi’s Rush to Impeach Trump: Three Possible Scenarios

A separate Monmouth survey released this past Wednesday indicated that 50 percent of those who participated said Trump should not be impeached and removed from office, with 45 percent saying that he should be. This was little changed from figures collected in the previous month.

“Opinion on impeachment has been rock steady since news of the Ukraine call first broke. Any small shifts we are seeing now are likely to be statistical noise,” Patrick Murray, Monmouth University Polling Institute director, told Fox News.

The House Judiciary Committee on Friday voted to adopt two articles of impeachment against Trump — “capping a contentious three-day session that Republicans panned as a ‘kangaroo court’ and teeing up a historic floor vote right before the holiday break,” as Fox News noted.

“The committee adopted both articles, alleging abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, on a party-line vote of 23-17.”

“A final roll call in the full House is expected next week, which could trigger a Senate trial in the new year just as presidential primaries are set to get underway,” the outlet also noted.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), however, has said he may acquit the president if and when the matter comes to the Senate.

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This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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