Democrats rattled as billionaire donor keeps pushing to impeach Trump
Democratic leaders have pressed Tom Steyer privately, urging him to tone down his campaign calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment. They have prodded him in public, declaring on television that they consider impeachment an impractical idea. And party strategists have pleaded with Democratic candidates for Congress not to join in.
But Steyer, a California billionaire and one of the Democratic Party’s most prolific donors, has only intensified his attacks in recent weeks. Buoyed by tens of millions of dollars in television commercials — financed out of his own pocket and starring him — Steyer has become one of Trump’s most visible antagonists, firing up angry Democrats and unnerving his own party with the ferocity of his efforts.
Steyer is likely to unsettle national Democrats further in the coming weeks, with a new phase of his campaign aimed at pushing lawmakers in solidly liberal seats to endorse impeachment. Having collected more than 4 million email addresses from people who signed an impeachment petition, Steyer has begun prodding those voters to call congressional offices and lobby them for support.
In an interview, Steyer was dismissive of party leaders’ reservations about making impeachment an issue in 2018. He described Trump as lawless and unfit for office; acknowledging the practical obstacles to impeachment, he said raising a popular outcry was a necessary first step. “We’re just telling the truth to the American people, and it’s an important truth,” Steyer said of his campaign. “And if you don’t think it’s politically convenient for you, that’s too bad.”
Already, Democrats acknowledge Steyer has helped force impeachment into mainstream conversation, playing to a liberal base that has cheered confrontational tactics such as the three-day government shutdown. While Democrats intend to run on a fiercely anti-Trump message this year, party leaders envision a campaign of broad attacks on the president’s economic agenda rather than a blunt-force impeachment pledge. There is no realistic chance of impeaching Trump while Republicans control Congress, and Democrats from moderate and conservative districts fear the idea could alienate voters otherwise likely to vote their way in November.
But the Democratic base, enraged by Trump and frustrated by party leaders counseling restraint, appears enthusiastically open to seeking the president’s removal. A handful of Democratic congressional candidates — in crucial states such as California, Florida, Nevada and Wisconsin — have vowed to pursue impeachment if they are elected. That number is likely to grow during the coming season of Democratic primaries, in which throngs of candidates are competing for the affection of liberal voters who loathe the president.
Mary Barzee Flores, a former circuit court judge who is one of more than a half-dozen Democrats seeking a Republicanheld seat in Miami, said the issue had plainly resonated with voters in the area, where Trump is unpopular. Barzee Flores, who endorsed impeachment in a newspaper column last fall, said Trump’s firing of James B. Comey, the former FBI director, had been a breaking point for her.
“Like a lot of people, I am appalled by the president’s conduct in office,” Barzee Flores said in an interview, adding: “I do believe that there’s a basis to impeach the president, and I do believe that he’s got to go. He’s dangerous.”
But Barzee Flores said Democrats should not treat impeachment as a singular issue in 2018, over matters like health care and immigration. “There are other issues that are pressing,” she said. “More pressing, even.”
For Steyer, however, impeachment is a singular cause. And he is no easy character for Democrats to ignore: From his headquarters in a San Francisco office tower, Steyer, 60, has built a sprawling political operation with more than 200 staff members around the country, mostly employed by his flagship group, NextGen America, which focuses on climate change.
Steyer has amassed a mixed win-loss record over the years, along with a mercurial reputation among Democratic strategists. But he is nearly alone among Democratic donors in his willingness to spend money on a titanic scale. In 2016, Steyer spent more than $90 million supporting Democrats, and his checkbook may be critical to their efforts to capture Congress.