President Trump appears to be defiant in the face of the Impeachment Inquiry:
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2019
Chris Cillizza of CNN objects:
“Try to impeach this” is obviously a dare based on the image, which purports to show just how much support this President had in 2016. But impeachment has zero to do with how popular (or not) a President is or was.
Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution sets this bar for impeachment:
“The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Nowhere in that is the word “popular” mentioned. Nor is “won a lot more counties in 2016” referenced.ce greatest Economy in the history of our Country, entirely rebuilt our Military into the most powerful it has ever been, Cut Record Taxes & Regulations, fixed the VA & gotten Choice for our Vets (after 45 years), & so much more?“
It’s also worth noting that the Executive, aka Trump, must work WITH Congress to achieve many of these objectives, and by and large has failed to do so; his most noteworthy achievements; the Tax Reform of 2017, which has resulted in immense Federal deficits, and the filling of many federal judiciary seats, both required cooperation from parts of the legislature. While the latter is merely dubious in its uplifting of right-wing zealots to the judiciary, virtually regardless of qualification, the former has already begun to show its ill-advised nature in terms of the aforementioned deficits.
Cillizza also addressed the population density question with a map, but I like this map from World Map better:
Note the concordance between density and Democratic victories in Trump’s map. But this one from Mark Newman of the University of Michigan is even better, as it depicts how the country voted in 2016 and manipulates the geography to fit the voting patterns:
It removes the distortion introduced by our wildly changing population density. But, even more importantly, the fact that it’s from 2016 should be important:
The country has had experience with Trump as President, and given his chronically low approval ratings, it’s becoming clear that impeaching the President isn’t an overwhelming project for the Democrats. Steve Benen provides a useful graph Quinnipiac polls:
As for Quinnipiac, just last week, it found 37% of Americans endorsing Trump’s impeachment and removal from office, while 57% disagreed. The results are quite different now.
American voters are divided on impeaching and removing President Trump from office, 47 – 47 percent – closing a 20-point gap from less than a week ago, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released today. In the poll released on September 25th, voters said that the president should not be impeached and removed 57 – 37 percent. […]
While voters are split on impeaching and removing President Trump from office, a slim majority of registered voters do approve of the impeachment inquiry opened by the U.S. House of Representatives 52 – 45 percent. Approval includes half of independents, who are split 50 – 45 percent on the inquiry.
Given the speed at which voters’ attitudes are changing, President Trump may be spitting into the wind.
Pundits and experts have suggested the impeachment inquiry may take months. I think may see the end of this far more quickly, depending on how loose Trump’s lips become, how much fortitude he wants to display in the face of self-inflicted disaster, and whether or not the Republican Party finally regains its sanity. Indeed, it may occur so quickly it blows the clothing off of his allies in the punditry and Congress. What will tomorrow bring?
