Rush Limbaugh says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to withhold impeachment articles from the Senate is a logical move if the plan is to exploit “the idiocy of her base.”

The conservative radio host said that voters with a limited understanding of what impeachment means for President Trump won’t care if Mrs. Pelosi holds onto impeachment articles indefinitely, they will only focus on the idea that something bad happened in 2019.

“This is all about the blemish,” Mr. Limbaugh said of the California Democrat’s motivations. “This is all about the asterisk. This is all about the black mark. This is all about 2020. This is all about Donald Trump was impeached, period. Not Donald Trump was impeached and acquitted in a Senate trial. Donald Trump was impeached. And she is counting on the fact that the idiocy of her base will think that means that Trump has been claimed illegitimate and unqualified and mission accomplished. That’s it.”

Mrs. Pelosi told reporters this week that her delay was driven by uncertain political calculus.

“I was not prepared to put the managers in that bill yet because we don’t know the arena that we are in,” she said.

Her response to Republicans who say the Senate “shall have the sole power to try all impeachments” was as follows: “Frankly, I don’t care what the Republicans say.”

“That’s none of her business,” Mr. Limbaugh said of the Democrat’s desire to know how the Senate plans to conduct its role in the proceedings. “All she’s really saying is she’s not going to send those things over there if it appears that there’s going to be an acquittal because that cancels out everything they’re doing here. It really isn’t any more complicated than that.”

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