Democrats apparently mean to spend the month of June refocusing attention on the damning contents of the Mueller report, and certain parties within the party are ready with the preemptive framing to head off any momentum into an official impeachment inquiry.
A senior House Democratic aide said June will be a particularly important test for the Judiciary Committee—the forum for these hearings, as well as any potential impeachment battle—to make the most of Mueller’s words and the substance of his report, which paints a damning picture of a chaotic White House and president seeking to thwart Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
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“It’s about whether Democrats—the Judiciary Committee, specifically—can exploit this moment and Mueller’s statements to ignite a national conversation about the extent of President Trump’s abuse of power and ways to hold him accountable,” the aide continued. “The true test of that is going to be in June. If you can’t do that with what he gave us, there’s no way you’re ready for impeachment.”
This sounds suspiciously like the Pelosi/Hoyer wing of the party cynically trying to take advantage of the historical reality that it is impeachment hearings themselves which bring public opinion around on impeachment, by using non-impeachment hearings to “prove” that there is no public support for impeachment.
As many who support impeachment hearings have pointed out, in early 1973, Gallup polling showed that only 19 percent of Americans supported removing President Richard M. Nixon. By the summer of 1974, when Nixon resigned, support had climbed to the high 50s—which illustrates that on impeachment, public opinion can be moved in a big way, including, presumably, on Trump.
No one will be watching Judiciary Committee hearings about the Mueller report, absent Mueller himself testifying, the way everyone would be watching actual impeachment hearings, because the very rarity of impeachment, along with its very nature as a constitutionally-designated process, carries weight—even if we think just of rhetoricalweight–that a normal hearing in any committee cannot hope to match.
Pelosi and Hoyer know this. They of course knew it even before Glen Sargent just today underscored that public opinion turns toward impeachment once actual impeachment hearings begin–something I was seeing on cable news (I think maybe from Michael Beschloss?) maybe as much as two months ago.
You can’t educate the public into impeachment support beforehand. You have to have the courage to begin impeachment first, because that brings such searing public focus onto the impeachable offenses that the public comes then around.
Given that everyone watching these issues knows the historical reality, that Pelosi and Hoyer, via this “senior House Democratic aide”, appear to be trying to manipulate the outcome in advance is a pretty ugly way to treat the members of their own party.