It is ‘party’ time for Don
Has GOP in hand in reelex push Immig groups affirm sanctuary-law support
WASHINGTON — With the final gavel banging down Wednesday on impeachment, President Trump barreled ahead in his reelection fight with a united Republican Party behind him, emboldened by reassuring poll numbers and chaos in the Democratic race to replace him.
Republican senators voted largely in lockstep to acquit Trump, relying on a multitude of rationales for keeping him in office: He’s guilty, but his conduct wasn’t impeachable; his July telephone conversation with Ukraine’s president was a “perfect call”; there’s an election in 10 months and it’s up to voters to determine his fate.
For Trump, there was one overriding message to draw from his acquittal: Even at a time of maximum political peril, it’s his Republican Party.
One day after Trump avoided talk of impeachment in his State of the Union address and argued that he had delivered on his 2016 campaign promises, the president already was moving to use impeachment as a 2020 rallying cry.
“He will be acquitted forever, beginning today,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters before the vote.
The nation’s first presidential nominating contest, the Iowa caucuses, handed more good news to Trump. A tabulating mishap threw the Democrats into chaos, depriving any candidate of a clear victory and allowing Trump to paint the Democrats as incompetent and corrupt.
Trump’s tenuous relationship with the GOP establishment has been a consistent theme of his political life in recent years as he has repeatedly put the party’s values to the test.
Still, most Republicans have grudgingly stuck with him, through his boasting about sexually assaulting women and defending white supremacists during a racial clash in Virginia, among myriad other faults.
Now, they are giving him the victory he’s been waiting for and lashing their fates to his like never before.
Throughout the impeachment process, Trump drew satisfaction as Republican senators, many of whom opposed his longshot candidacy and still dismiss him in private, overwhelmingly defended him and defied convention, tradition and public opinion polling in the process.
While Trump is among the least popular presidents in modern history, he has maintained wide support among Republicans, with 83% approving of his job performance in a January poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center.
Taking their cues from
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, with whom Trump has a respectful, if not particularly close, relationship, GOP senators fell in line to block new witnesses and documents in the trial.
The final vote Wednesday was no different: Only one Republican, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a longtime Trump critic, voted for removal.
Trump has benefited from a new class of Republicans in Congress who have proved to be more partisan than their predecessors.
Party members know that Trump also rains retribution on those who cross him.
For all of Trump’s talk about how Democrats stick together, he’s got the Republicans in his fist.
Still personally stung by impeachment, Trump is betting that he can sell his acquittal to the American people as a vindication, that he can activate his supporters and mollify even his skeptics in the center.
Democrats are left with the more challenging task of explaining the details of the Ukraine case to the American people, and the White House believes Trump’s less complicated message will prevail.
Immigrant groups are standing fast in their support of New York City’s sanctuary laws amid President Trump’s claim Tuesday that the laws led to the rape and murder of a 92-yearold Queens woman.
More than 120 groups signed a letter to Mayor de Blasio supporting the city’s detainer policies and slamming the criticism Trump delivered in his State of the Union speech.
The letter’s signers — including the the Immigrant Defense Project, Make the Road New York, Safe Horizon and the Legal Aid Society — support the city’s policy of not complying with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers that request local law enforcement turn over certain undocumented immigrants for deportation.