2020 hopefuls walk tightrope amid inquiry
The eruption of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump has thrown the Democratic presidential campaign abruptly off track, as the candidates scramble to respond forcefully on the scandal while simultaneously focusing on the breadand-butter policies they have touted for months.
The unusual split messaging pushes the primary into complicated terrain just four months before the first nominating contest in Iowa. While the candidates are vying for the chance to unseat Trump in 2020, Democratic leaders in Congress have initiated an inquiry focusing on a different question entirely — whether to remove him from office before then.
The response has sometimes been awkward. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., recently delivered impassioned remarks on unions, but tacked on a statement about impeachment beforehand after consulting with aides. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., fielded questions about Medicare for All at a town hall last week, then faced inquiries from reporters on impeachment. Former vice president Joe Biden spent a few minutes discussing impeachment at a recent stop before turning to an abbreviated version of his usual speech.
“It definitely throws a monkey wrench into everybody’s talking points,” said Rep. Matthew Cartwright, D-Pa., who supports Biden and endorsed an impeachment inquiry for the first time last week. “It’s something extra that they have to talk about.”
While prominent Democrats increasingly demand forceful statements on Trump’s actions, voters and activists are urging candidates not to stop talking about how they would provide health insurance to more Americans, shrink the gap between rich and poor, and combat climate change. Some bluntly warn that devoting too much attention to impeachment could be a costly mistake.
“Impeachment is an afterthought for a lot of people,” said Elesha Gayman, the chair of Scott County Democratic Party in Iowa. “I appreciate them coming out with a statement, but that’s about where it needs to end. I think the most important thing to carry forward for the Democrats is going to be having a message and a vision for what they are going to bring to the table.”
She added: “I think, especially in the Democratic Party, we lose elections when we make it about ‘we’re better than the other guy’ and we don’t lay out a vision.”
What’s clear is that the furor in Washington injects another huge dose of uncertainty, at a critical moment, into a contest that was already highly fluid. The field is likely to winnow soon, and the impeachment focus threatens to take even more oxygen from hopefuls who already had limited time to make an impact.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., took the rare step of beginning impeachment proceedings against Trump last week after he acknowledged urging the president of Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Many Democrats say dislodging Trump from office is unlikely, given the strong support for him in the Republican-controlled Senate, where a two-thirds vote is needed for removal.
Nevertheless, the Democratic presidential field has largely lined up behind Pelosi, endorsing her inquiry and vocally condemning Trump’s conduct. A whistle-blower complaint at the center of the controversy alleges Trump misused his office for personal gain and unidentified White House officials took improper actions to keep it a secret. Trump has said he did nothing wrong.
Some voters expressed concerns about the Democrats forging ahead on impeachment. Diana Kroeger, 52, an independent from Hollis, N.H., who stood in line for a photo with Warren after her Friday town hall event there, said “I’m worried” about the process, fearing it will further divide the country.
Will Norona, an autoworker from Flint, Mich., who walked a picket line in front of a GM plant in Detroit last week with Sanders, said he worried that focusing on impeachment could take attention away from other issues.
But other Democrats want to see the candidates call him out more aggressively than ever.
“They’ve got to keep the focus on Trump while hot lights are on him,” said Gilda Cobb-Hunter, president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and a veteran South Carolina Democrat.
Warren advocated impeachment proceedings long before the recent revelations about Trump’s conversation with the Ukrainian president. Warren has been rising in the polls, and some of her rivals have begun criticizing her policies, but the impeachment furor could make that harder with so much attention focused on Trump.
Sanders has been more cautious about the prospect of impeachment. While he also supports an inquiry, a point he has emphasized repeatedly in recent days, he has long focused on policy, and he warned Democrats not to abandon work on other important issues.
During a July 25 phone call, Trump requested Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate Biden, according to a rough transcript of the conversation that White House released. Biden’s son Hunter had served on the board of Burisma, Ukraine’s largest private gas company, whose owner came under scrutiny by Ukrainian prosecutors for possible abuse of power. Hunter was not accused of wrongdoing.
As vice president, Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to fire the top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who many Western officials said was not sufficiently pursuing corruption. At the time, the investigation into Burisma was dormant, according to former Ukrainian and U.S. officials.
At a recent fundraiser, Biden said he and his family had done nothing wrong and accused Trump of trying to “hijack an election so we do not focus on the issues that matter in our lives.” He added, “This is not about me.”