Two leaders in the conservative movement told Breitbart News on Saturday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC, that despite the ongoing impeachment drama House Democrats are staging daily, the end result will not be the removal of President Donald Trump from office, but rather 2020 election results that could send many Democrats packing up their congressional offices.
Ken Blackwell, senior fellow for Human Rights and Constitutional Governance at the Family Research Council, who served as Ohio State Treasurer andas Ohio Secretary of State and was a speaker and panelist at the FRC Action-sponsored event, called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) impeachment endorsement without a formal vote in the House a process that is “stepping all over that fairness principle that was in the original intent of a legitimate political process.”
Blackwell said:
It’s political by definition anyway, but this has become a distorted part of politics where, in fact, the president’s team has not been presented with the opportunity to make his case public. He has not been charged with anything publicly. It has all taken place in the secrecy of darkness.
Only three presidents have faced impeachment, and the two in recent history — Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton — were subject to the traditional protocol: the drafting of an impeachment resolution, which is put on the House floor for a vote. If the resolution passes, articles of impeachment are drawn up and presented to the Senate, which triggers a trial in the upper chamber.
In the effort against Donald Trump, Pelosi has unilaterally declared an impeachment inquiry and has given the House Intelligence Committee, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), authority to lead the investigation.
And that investigation has mainly consisted of behind-close-doors interviews with individuals Democrats hope can provide evidence that would support their impeachment effort — a fact that the left has defended as completely in order.
“They can defend that if they wish, but I think the American people will see that as a stretch too far,” Blackwell said, adding that even if the Democrats follow proper protocol, impeachment will mainly be symbolic.’
Blackwell told Breitbart News.:
I think eventually Nancy Pelosi will have to take the formal vote, and when she does there will be 30 Democrat freshmen that will in fact be in the hot sea, and this will play out politically. The president might be impeached by this Congress. He’s not going to be found guilty by the Senate.
Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots and speaker and panelist at the summit, told Breitbart News she agreed that Pelosi’s singular approach to impeachment is setting a “dangerous precedent” and is violating the Constitution.
Moreover, both Martin and Blackwell said that impeachment will come back to haunt Democrats in 2020.
“I think [impeachment] will be front and center on everyone’s mind,” Martin said, adding that especially for the freshman Democrats who won a seat in the 2018 midterm election in districts where Trump won in 2016, will be facing voters who know they just impeached the president they helped elect.
“I think that is something that will be very hard for many voters to do,” Martin said.
“I think it’s going to motivate our base,” Blackwell said, adding that despite the Democrats constant attacks, Trump should not get distracted.
“In the final analysis I think what the president has to do is to continue to lead this country towards prosperity, towards peace, and towards what I consider to be an opportunity society, not an expansion of the welfare state,” Blackwell said.
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