As plans in their never-ending quest to derail President Trump and get him out of office go, Tuesday’s impeachment fever probably isn’t bearing the fruit that Democrats hoped for. The early evidence indicates that the threat may have done more to energize the Republican base than anyone else.
In Wednesday’s Morning Briefing I noted that the president was treating the impeachment circus as a campaign opportunity, and that seems to have gone very well for Team Trump:
In the 24 hours since news of Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment announcement, @realDonaldTrump’s campaign & @GOP have BLOWN OUT fundraising!
✅$5 Million combined in 24 hrs
✅Donors in all 50 statesHuge groundswell of support leading to Trump landslide in 2020!
— Brad Parscale – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@parscale) September 25, 2019
Even in the modern era of big-money politics, that is a substantial haul all-around for the president and the party. The National Republican Congressional Committee reports that its effort to retake the House was buoyed by an increase of more than six hundred percent in online fundraising:
And the NRCC's online fundraising was up 608% yesterday. Thank you, @SpeakerPelosi and de facto Speaker @AOC! https://t.co/FMvhrQbsbq
— NRCC (@NRCC) September 25, 2019
Lumping Pelosi and AOC together in that dig is a nice touch. Pelosi has long pushed back against the demands by AOC and her lunatic fringe for an impeachment inquiry, probably for reasons like these gaudy fundraising numbers. Pelosi may not admit it in public, but she’s probably full of private “I told you so,” today.
I also noted in the Briefing that even MSNBC had a serious discussion about the potential for an impeachment inquiry to be a boon for the Republicans. Pelosi plays the long game, and surely weighed all of the potential outcomes. She’s been in Congress two years longer than AOC has been alive, yet the latter commands all of the media adoration now.
You probably won’t hear many complaints from Republicans about that.
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