U.S. President Donald Trump’s re-election will benefit from the impeachment process moving into the GOP-led Senate early next year by allowing him to turn the partisan clown show into a “political-type campaign” with “hypermedia coverage” that will turn all the attention on him, a former Trump campaign aide told Breitbart News.
Sam Nunberg spoke with host Matthew Boyle on the latest edition of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot Channel 125.
He said that the portion of the partisan impeachment inquiry in the House, launched in late September and led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, had been a disaster for Democrats.
“I think the president is going to be impeached [in the House],” the former campaign aide explicitly said. Nunberg, however, is optimistic about what happens next.
“First, this may actually be better for Trump, and I’m not rationalizing this, because it wasn’t as if they’re going to pass anything during this stunt. He’s [Trump] going to have a trial, and he’s essentially going to conduct a political-type campaign and have perfect foils [during the process],” he said.
“Not only are they going to call Joe Biden and Hunter Biden to the Senate. You can call Barack Obama frankly, and you can question Barack Obama [about] what he knew [and] when he knew it; Hillary Clinton [about] what she knew [and] when she knew it about Ukraine interference on behalf of Hillary Clinton, and that’s a fact from 2016,” he continued.
Democrats and their media allies repeatedly argue that the potential U.S. presidential interference by Ukraine to benefit Clinton is a debunked conspirac, while Republicans argue otherwise.
“So [Democrats] better be careful what they wish for. Further, why this is good for the president is, well, nothing is going to be passed [in Congress] during this term,” Nunberg pointed out. “Not only is nothing going be passed, [but] you’re also going to have hypermedia coverage, and you should for the Democrat primary. So, think about that.”
“So, think about where the president is going to be actually at an advantage, because while I still think normally it would not be a net plus to be impeached under the circumstances of the president not having a foil to nothing rallies maybe putting up some ads on national TV, which will just get drained out from the Democrats buying ads, he’s going to have the attention center on him and the Democrats don’t have a real case,” he added.
“So this is actually going to end up working for the Donald as things typically do by chance,” he observed.
The president’s fortunes will change once the impeachment process moves to the Senate, Nunberg stressed.
“This [House impeachment portion] was supposed to be the best time for the Democrats when Adam Schiff did these last two weeks [of closed-door and public hearings], and we know for a fact that the weeks didn’t work … because he essentially conducted a grand jury in public where he was getting people to testify who had already testified,” the former political advisor to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign said.
“He didn’t need them for his [impeachment] report. The president could not defend himself [during what some Republicans referred to as Schiff’s Kangaroo court],” Nunberg added. “As we get to the [House] Judiciary Committee, there’s going to be some semblance of the president allowing to have a lawyer like Bill Clinton did. Perhaps, he’ll be allowed to call in some witnesses there.”
The Schiff-led House intelligence panel is expected to release its report after Thanksgiving, after which House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) is projected to promptly draft and debate articles of impeachment against Trump.
Democrats are shooting for a final full House impeachment vote by Christmas, which would set the stage for a likely Senate trial in Januar, where lawmakers are expected to acquit the U.S President, barring some unlikely and unforeseen circumstances. Once the process reaches the Senate, it will benefit Trump given the impeachment’s proximity to the November 20 presidential elections.
Ironically, the Democrats began the impeachment inquiry to allegedly prevent Trump from interfering in the upcoming elections, but it seems the process may end up helping the U.S. president, or so argues Nunberg.
Under current rules, the trial in the Senate could take weeks, moving it closer to presidential election day.
Many of the Senators running against Trump will also have to abandon the campaign trail to participate in the impeachment probe.
The Hill noted:
Both parties have a political incentive for an expeditious trial that could arrive as soon as January: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants to quickly acquit Trump so Republicans can shift to other priorities like confirming judges; Democrats don’t want their 2020 presidential hopefuls, like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), to get stuck in a lengthy, inside-the-Beltway impeachment trial.
One possible complication to the emerging timeline is the fact that lawmakers also need to figure out how to avoid another government shutdown amid the partisan acrimony.
Although the House Democrats have not committed themselves to a specific timeline, they are expected to vote on impeachment articles by the end of the year.
Trump’s allies so far have remained united behind the president, while some cracks appear to emerge among tDemocrats.