Trump aiming to use impeachment to rev up base
USING STARK ‘us vs. them’ language, President Donald Trump and his re-election campaign have begun framing his impeachment not as a judgment on his conduct, but as a referendum on how Democrats regard him and his supporters.
Mere days from the start of an election year, the White House and its allies are painting Trump’s impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress as an effort to undo his 2016 victory and discount the will of the people.
There was nothing subtle about Trump’s pinned tweet shortly after the impeachment: “In reality, they’re not after me. They’re after you,” was plastered above a photo of Trump pointing at the reader. “I’m just in the way.”
All but certain to be acquitted in next year’s trial by the Republicancontrolled Senate, Trump has considered a barnstorming tour after the yet-to-be-scheduled trial ends, hoping to use a backward-looking message to propel him forward in 2020. His campaign believes that anger at the impeachment may be the motivation needed to bring out voters who stayed home in the 2016 election but approve of the president and are fed up with the Washington establishment.
CULTURE WAR STRATEGY
“After three years of sinister witch-hunts, hoaxes, scams,” Trump roared during an impeachment-night rally in Michigan, “the House Democrats are trying to nullify the ballots of tens of millions of patriotic Americans.”
The president’s words evoked his 2016 campaign’s closing message that his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, had mocked the ‘deplorables’ who supported him. In 2020, he’s ready to lean in once again on culture war divisions to portray his campaign as a movement under attack by the Washington status quo.
Trump’s allies in the House struck a similar chord during the impeachment debate as several Republican lawmakers hammered home the word ‘hate’, declaring that Democrats despised the president and his base. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California had gone out of her way days earlie r to say that she does not ‘hate’ Trump.
“We face this horror because of this map,” said Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana, before a poster of red and blue states. “They call this Republican map flyover country, they call us deplorables, they fear our faith, they fear our strength, they fear our unity, they fear our vote, and they fear our president.”