Donald Trump just screwed up and blew a gaping hole in his own impeachment trial strategy
Yesterday we saw that certain Republican Senators are already very nervous about the possibility of voters punishing them for gifting Donald Trump a sham impeachment trial. They’ve already forced Mitch McConnell to revise his trial schedule. They’re not yet ready to force McConnell to call witnesses. But it’s clear that if the wind blows a certain way, they’ll go that route in the hope of protecting their own backsides.
Accordingly, the very best thing Donald Trump could do right now is to keep quiet about it, and hope he gets lucky. Instead he decided to open his mouth today, and he said the dumbest thing possible. During his Davos speech, Trump said this about the impeachment trial evidence: “We have all the material. They don’t have the material.” No really, he said that. He just publicly bragged that he and his administration are withholding evidence that incriminates him.
If you’ve been paying close attention to the impeachment saga over the past few months, you already knew this. But most Americans haven’t been keeping up with the details of impeachment on a daily basis, and may not even be aware that Trump and his people have illegally defied subpoenas and refused to turn over evidence. Now Trump just fed the mainstream media a fresh narrative about how he’s not only withholding evidence of his guilt, he’s bragging that he’s withholding it.
Donald Trump, the world’s most clueless negotiator, may be under the impression that this kind of taunting somehow strengthens his position. Instead, it’ll prompt the media to impress upon the public that Trump is illegally withholding evidence that incriminates him. This should drive poll numbers in favor of conviction, and in favor of witnesses, even higher. This places more pressure on the already-nervous Republican Senators to call witnesses. We still don’t know what the odds are of that happening, but Trump just stupidly increased those odds.
