Nancy Pelosi: “they know they’re gonna lose”

| 8:15 pm EST December 20, 2019
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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has spent 2019 carrying out a strategy of impeaching Donald Trump for the right reasons, while doing it in the most politically advantageous way possible. Despite widespread predictions that impeachment would hand the 2020 election to Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, there’s no evidence at all that things are trending in that direction. In fact we’re seeing the opposite.

For one thing, Donald Trump’s 2020 poll numbers are just as pathetic now as they were the day Nancy Pelosi first launched an impeachment inquiry. There’s no reason to expect that an acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial – if there even is one – will help Trump’s prospects either. If Trump wants to find a way to climb into contention for 2020, he’s going to have to find something other than impeachment.

There are also strong indications that House Republicans don’t expect to win a majority in 2020. The Washington Post ran a headline today that said “Republicans are nearing 2018 levels of House retirements again.” Nancy Pelosi quoted this and added her own analysis: “It means that they know they’re gonna lose. And if they win, they’re going to serve in the minority under a Democratic President.”

She’s right, of course. If House Republicans thought they had a decent chance at taking the majority in 2020, they’d stick around so they could enjoy taking control of all the House committees. Instead they’re heading to the exits in near-record numbers, because they think Donald Trump’s toxic unpopularity will be an albatross round their necks in 2020. Of course this will only happen for sure if the Resistance spends the next year putting in the election work to make it happen.