The surest sign yet that Donald Trump is going down [updated]
In the two weeks since Donald Trump’s impeachment began, we’ve seen numerous signs that he’s not likely to survive this – damning evidence, spiking pro-impeachment poll numbers, even tepid signs of life from Republican Senators who are afraid of losing their own seats. But if you want the most surefire sign yet that Trump is going down, it just played out this afternoon.
Manu Raju of CNN reported that “The White House has reached out to outside lawyers for impeachment counsel, according to a person familiar. One of the lawyers they reached out to is Trey Gowdy.” That alone was enough to set off shockwaves from the sheer number of people rolling on the floor laughing. The idea that Trump would hire Gowdy – the guy who famously spent eleven hours getting taken to school by Hillary Clinton during congressional hearings – is patently absurd. But then things got worse.
Then, just twenty minutes later, reporter Travis Akers tweeted this: “Trey Gowdy has declined to represent President Trump.” That’s right, even Trey Gowdy – a man who once quixotically tried to spin the Benghazi non-scandal into a scandal through sheer force of will – thinks there’s just no spinning Trump’s scandals.
It’s also notable that Donald Trump is trying to hire new impeachment lawyers, period. By all accounts, he already hired a large number of impeachment lawyers, long before the House impeachment inquiry began. Now, just two weeks into the inquiry, Trump has apparently already decided that he needs new legal representation – a sign that even he knows this is going very, very poorly for him. Update, 6:55pm: CNN is now reporting that Trey Gowdy is taking the job after all.
