Tulsi Gabbard: Impeachment ‘Greatly Increased’ Trump’s 2020 Chances

2020 White House candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) predicted Monday that the House Democrats’ impeachment effort will boost President Donald Trump’s reelection chances and help House Republicans win back a majority.

“Unfortunately, the House impeachment of the president has greatly increased the likelihood Trump will remain the president for the next 5 years,” Gabbard said in a video shared to Twitter. “We all know that Trump is not going to be found guilty by the U.S. Senate.”

In 2020, we will have a new president in the White House. How many of you do NOT want that to be Donald Trump? I certainly don't. Unfortunately, the House impeachment of the president has greatly increased the likelihood Trump will remain the president for the next 5 years … pic.twitter.com/FRRlbWHyo7

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) December 31, 2019

Gabbard’s video remarks come after she told ABC News that impeachment will energize Republican voters in 2020.

“I think impeachment, unfortunately, will only further embolden Donald Trump, increase his support and the likelihood that he’ll have a better shot at getting elected while also seeing the likelihood that the House will lose a lot of seats to Republicans,” the Hawaii Democrat told the news organization while taking a break from campaigning in Hudson, New Hampshire, on Saturday.

Earlier this month, Gabbard was the sole House Democrat to vote “present” on two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump over his contacts with Ukraine.

“A “no” vote was unacceptable for me Donald Trump is absolutely guilty of wrongdoing. A “yes” vote was unacceptable to me because impeachment should never come about as a culmination of a highly partisan process. This is something that our founding [fathers] warned us about,” she told The Hill.

Gabbard has also criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) decision to delay the submission of articles to the Senate.

“I was surprised to hear that. You can’t kind of just shift and change and make up the rules as you go along. If you’re going to pursue this process, you’ve got to let it play out the whole way through,” she said.