Republicans might be content to use talk of impeachment to hector the Democrats heading toward the fall campaign — and to rally their base to try to mitigate what looks like an intensity gap with the Democrats. But the Cohen conviction in particular was a reminder of the possible jeopardy Trump could be in. Grants of immunity to two people long close to the president — David Pecker, the chairman and chief executive of American Media, the publisher of the National Enquirer; and Alan Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization — ratchet up the pressure.
Republicans have stood with the president throughout the Mueller investigation, as one guilty plea and now a jury conviction mount up. How long will that stay the case? The midterm election results could be that moment, but only if the results are truly bad, and perhaps not even then. Such is the hold Trump has on the party.
Democrats face their own choices. As energetically as Republicans are trying to stoke the idea that Democrats will launch an impeachment proceeding if they control the House, Democratic Party leaders are just as actively trying to tamp down such talk. They fear that making impeachment — rather than health care or the Trump administration and GOP corruption — the main issue in November could rob them of maximum gains in the House and elsewhere. They are right to worry.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member