As November's 2018 midterm elections near, Republican leaders are honing in on strategies to maintain control of Congress. One thing they're focusing on is making it clear to conservative voters that Democrats might attempt to impeach Donald Trump if they achieve House majority.
As The New York Times points out, Senator Ted Cruz held a re-election kickoff rally last week, in which he featured a faux news anchor reading possible headlines from the future if Democrats take control of Congress. At one point, the anchor instilled fear in the conservative crowd as he said, "Senate Majority Leader Schumer announced the impeachment trial of President Trump."
"The threat of impeachment is something that unifies everybody in the party, even if you’re not a big Trump supporter," Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski tells NYT.
Republican Representative Sean Duffy of Wisconsin told listeners during a talk radio interview last week: "Do you think that the far-left Resist movement base of the Democrat Party would accept anything other than impeachment?"
A research firm that assists Republicans called America Rising also sent out an email that put it simply: "Right now the only thing standing between the president and the Democrats’ underhanded impeachment attempts is the Republican majority in the House fighting to defend our president."
So, will Democrats actually push for impeachment if they take control of Congress?
"I’ve been urging members to refrain from discussing impeachment," says Democrat Adam Schiff, a Congressman from California. "I think we should let these investigations conclude and see what evidence is found."
Even some Republicans aren't convinced that Democrats would follow through with something as drastic as an impeachment attempt. "I can’t even imagine the Democrats would go there,” says Mark Lundberg, a former chairman of the Sioux County Republican committee in Iowa. "Impeachment for what? For being rude to them? That would be so outrageous."
Barack Obama's former chief strategist David Axelrod agrees. "If impeachment becomes a political tool instead of the end result of a credible investigation, then you are as guilty as Trump, in some ways, of taking a hammer blow to institutions," he says. "To say I’m for impeachment come hell or high water is to promise chaos."
This hasn't stopped some on the left to take drastic measures towards an impeachment campaign, however. In November, a half-dozen Democrats introduced articles of impeachment against Trump for obstruction of justice. More recently, a group called Mad Dog PAC recently put up a billboard calling for the president's impeachment along a road that Trump travels en route to his Florida golf club.
