Reaction to Trump’s call follows party lines
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he’s confident impeachment proceedings will only increase his political support as the nation draws closer to the 2020 election.
In a phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump — according to a five-page summary produced by the White House — raised allegations that former vice president Joe Biden sought to interfere with a Ukrainian prosecutor’s investigation of his son Hunter. Trump, according to the transcript, then offered the help of Attorney General Barr and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to aid Zelenskyy in investigating Biden.
Mark Caleb Smith, a political studies professor at Cedarville University, said he believes some people might be growing fatigued of impeachment talk.
“I think maybe one of the errors Democrats have committed over the past couple of years is to be constantly talking about impeachment and constantly talking about investigations,” Smith said. “To the point where you do see some of scandal fatigue. I think there’s a potential here if this impeachment proceeding flounders a little early on, let’s say the transcript we get today isn’t all that interesting or revealing, I think the Democrats are probably in trouble.”
The new impeachment drive was led by a group of moderate Democratic lawmakers from political swing districts, many with national security backgrounds and serving in Congress for the first time. The freshmen, who largely represent districts previously held by Republicans where Trump is popular, risk their own reelections but say they could no longer stand idle.
“Ever since the Democrats took over the House in 2018, there has been pretty consistent drum beat for impeachment from the more progressive part of the party,” Smith said. “Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi is quite progressive herself. She’s also a really strategic politician. I think she’s thought all along this is politically going to be very difficult, not much of a chance of a payoff in the United States Senate for actually removing the president. So I think she’s resisted until now. I think it’s because of the pressure. I think it’s also though because maybe the phone exchanges with the Ukrainian president — these are different, they’re new and they’re also provocative.”
Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman encouraged Democrats to move on from the inquiry.
“The American people want us to get things done for them rather than focus on more and more partisan investigations,” Portman said in a statement. “The Democrats’ impeachment inquiry will distract Congress from the bipartisan legislative work we should be doing to find solutions and deliver results for the American people.”
Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said the inquiry is needed.
“Any effort by Trump or Trump’s associates to pressure a foreign government to dig up dirt on his political opponent, while holding up vital military aid to that country, is both corrupt and a threat to our interests,” Brown said in a statement.
Smith said he is not sure whether the impeachment inquiry and the phone call with Zelenskiy can be dealt with separately, but he expects House Democrats will rely on other factors, as well.
“I think for the Democrats, it seems like they are staking this impeachment on what happens and what we hear between presidents,” Smith said. “Now I think they’re going to say, ‘Well certainly we have plenty of other things. We have the Mueller Report, other arguments about obstruction of justice.’ But I think those are going to be difficult. So if we don’t get some important information that really condemns the president’s behavior, the Democrats are really going to struggle.”