GOP Campaign Pros Point to Major Pelosi Stumbles in Impeachment Drive

President Donald Trump pauses to answer a reporter’s question about a whistleblower at the White House in Washington on Sept. 30, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON—Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “waited till the end of the year and is now racing the clock” on impeaching President Donald Trump, using an anonymous alleged whistleblower’s claims about the chief executive’s July 25 conversation with Ukraine officials.

“The Clinton impeachment took five months, the Nixon impeachment took eight months,” Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak told The Epoch Times on Oct. 2. “If they want to get it done by Thanksgiving, that’s 6 1/2 weeks from today. If they want it done by Iowa, it’s four months.” The first presidential caucuses will take place in Iowa on Feb. 3, 2020.

Pelosi and key House Democratic leaders such as House Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) haven’t made sufficient progress, the Texas and District of Columbia-based Mackowiak said. He’s also president of the Potomac Strategy Group.

“What do we know today that we didn’t know Friday, not really that much. You can’t give it the gas and try to move this thing quickly and also lose valuable time, so she’s also kind of stuck there,” he said.

Mackowiak said the impeachment effort “has lost some momentum this week, there is no question about that. There was a feeding frenzy last week, and it seemed like it was getting worse quickly.”

But, as this week has developed, Mackowiak said, “that’s really abated a bit, and this is now kind of falling into a partisan box where everyone is sticking with their side.”

Convincing Democrats “that Trump needs to be impeached, that’s not going to be enough,” Mackowiak said. “If this is viewed as a partisan exercise, it’s a loser for them politically” in the 2020 elections.

Earlier on Oct. 2, The New York Times reported that Schiff was briefed by an intelligence committee staffer on the whistleblower’s complaint days before Pelosi’s Sept. 24 announcement of an “official” impeachment inquiry. Trump released the transcript of his Ukraine call the same day.

Other Republican advocates also pointed to what they regard as serious miscues by Pelosi’s Democrats in focusing so much of their efforts and political capital on impeaching Trump.

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist noted on Oct. 1 that 13 of the 18 House seats Republicans need to gain in 2020 to regain the House majority were in districts Trump carried by five or more points in 2016.

“Most of the Democrats’ 2018 pickups ran as moderates,” Norquist said. “By making impeachment high profile, those ‘moderates’ look like Nancy Pelosi robots, or worse, AOC robots.”

“AOC” refers to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the radical left-wing freshman elected in 2018 who now is among the most prominent figures in her party.

Norquist said the impeachment emphasis in 2019 also contradicts the basic themes the 2018 Democratic pickups ran on, such as “let’s get things done,” “I’m a veteran, vote for me,” and “I’m a moderate.”

Democrats also make themselves appear unconcerned about the economic progress achieved by key middle-class voters in battleground states like Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, Norquist said.

“During the entire 16 years of [presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama], the median income in the U.S. increased by only $1,000,” Norquist said, citing figures reported by The Wall Street Journal.

“In contrast, since Trump became president, the media income in the U.S. increased by $4,144. And their taxes went down by $1,400 in 2018 after the Trump/GOP tax cut,” Norquist said.

“That is the group that elected Trump, and they have been amply rewarded in that trust being kept. Democrats continue to talk about everything other than the economic well-being of the average American.”

Brian Darling, president of Liberty Government Affairs and former senior adviser to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), told The Epoch Times on Oct 1 that “the left has been pushing for impeachment since Trump was elected,” and it’s “yet another data point that the Democratic Party has been hijacked by the far left and the de facto leader of the party today is [AOC].”

Darling described AOC and three of her Democratic colleagues—Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts—as “the Socialism Squad” that now rules the House Democratic caucus.

“If they further become the angry face and hysterical voice of the Democratic Party as a whole, Democrats will be marginalized in the elections next fall,” Darling predicted.

Contact Mark Tapscott at [email protected]