CNN: Trump might pick Lewandowski to quarterback impeachment pushback

Of course he will. Anyone remember Corey Lewandowski’s audition for this role? As Allahpundit wrote a little over a week ago, it was “a freak show all the way through,” backfiring on Democrats who thought they could intimidate Lewandowski into coloring within their lines. Instead, Lewandowski flummoxed House Judiciary Democrats so badly that their own caucus ripped them for not stopping him from making the hearing into a laughingstock.

Advertisement

Now CNN reports that the House Judiciary Committee might have to deal with Lewandowski again … and again … and again:

Corey Lewandowski, the political operative who helped elect Donald Trump, has had conversations with White House officials in recent days about potentially taking a position inside the administration to help the President confront a looming impeachment fight.

The discussions, including a Thursday afternoon meeting at the White House, reflect the growing recognition among Trump’s allies and advisers that he is without a clear strategy for managing the crisis, which exploded in stunning fashion this week.

Trump’s 2016 campaign manager would be in a crisis management type role, and the idea as it currently stands would be for Lewandowski to assemble a team that mirrors the one that existed in Bill Clinton’s White House when he was facing his own impeachment.

The list of potential players on the team includes David Bossie, his former deputy campaign manager who angered the President earlier this year by soliciting funds using Trump’s name. Bossie served as the chief investigator of the House Oversight Committee in 1997, helping scrutinize Clinton.

Lewandowski might not make many direct contacts with Judiciary in this role, but it will be clear what his approach to an impeachment process will be. To put it mildly, cooperation will not be the overall goal of the White House under Lewandowski’s leadership, nor with Trump either, for that matter. In that sense (only), Lewandowski might be the perfect man for the position. With Nancy Pelosi’s caucus still struggling to come to terms with the idea, though, a more cooperative approach might keep Pelosi from getting enough votes to sustain an impeachment. Picking Lewandowski all but guarantees a party-line vote to impeach Trump.

Advertisement

But would Lewandowski want the job? Supposedly, he’s preparing to run for the Senate in New Hampshire. In fact, he even used the hearing to tease out a run against Jeanne Shaheen next year. There is no way Lewandowski can do both at the same time. Even if the House fails to impeach Trump, the bloody battle will do its damage to Lewandowski, and in an evenly split state like New Hampshire, that damage would doom his campaign — assuming he had any time at all to run it.

Still, if Trump wants to adopt an in-your-face approach, no one gets more in your face than Lewandowski. Even PBS wondered last week what Democrats thought they were going to get from subpoenaing him and giving Lewandowski a national platform. They will certainly know that they’re going to get a “circus” with Lewandowski the next time, even if they don’t subpoena him to testify. If Trump wants to burn it all down, Corey’s his guy, for better and worse.

Update: Lewandowski says it’s news to him, but ….

Advertisement

Don’t forget that Lewandowski made it clear during his hearing that he feels no particular compunction to be honest with the news media. That might be a feature rather than a bug for Trump, of course.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement