Then president-elect Donald Trump greets House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. (J. Scott Applewhite)

I remain baffled by what the strategy is here for the impeachment chorus. Taking this thing all the way to removing the president is going to require buy-in from people like Mitch McConnell. Otherwise it’s just a really elaborate gesture of indignation that concludes with Donald Trump mocking Nancy Pelosi for wasting everyone’s time for however many months. How amenable is Mitch sounding? “It’s laughable to think this is anywhere close to an impeachable offense. I’ve read the summary of the call,” the Senate majority leader told Politico yesterday. “If this is the ‘launching point’ for House Democrats’ impeachment process, they’ve already overplayed their hand. It’s clear there is no quid pro quo that the Democrats were desperately praying for.”


Laughable! McConnell, I remind you, could simply dismiss any House impeachment measure. He need not bring it up for a vote.* Or, alternatively, he could bring it up for a vote if he thought it would embarrass the Democratic party. Is voting against impeachment going to hurt swing-state incumbent Republicans up for reelection next year, such as Thom Tillis of North Carolina? Tillis doesn’t sound too game to convict the president either.

Nancy Pelosi should be embarrassed. The transcript debunks the Democrats’ false claims against President @realDonaldTrump and demonstrates that their call to impeach him is a total farce. — Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) September 25, 2019

What Tillis and McConnell sense is that the public angrily opposes impeachment. The New York Times yesterday put a lot of resources yesterday into a story that made an honest attempt to sound out voters about the matter. What they discovered is essentially that no one but hard-core Democrats wants impeachment. This is consistent with previous polling on the matter. The voters the Times talked to simply don’t agree that the Ukraine call mentioning Biden makes this a whole new ballgame. If anything they’re more irritated with the Democrats for going nuclear than they are with Trump. A Times reporter tweeted (then deleted) the following remark:

There is such a thing as a D.C. bubble. Impeachment sounds really exciting in D.C. circles. At last, the big show can begin! The world’s eyes will be upon us! D.C. people are also obsessed with the news media — and the news media smell an absolute bonanza here. Are we forgetting that the voters have the final say?


*Ramesh points out that while McConnell is not obligated under the Constitution to hold an impeachment trial, he appears to be obligated to do so under current Senate rules. McConnell could, of course, push to have those rules changed.