Even though he claimed this week that he’s “having a good time” with his impeachment, President Donald Trump is said to actually be “shellshocked” and upset that the House voted to pass two articles of impeachment Wednesday evening, according to a new report from the New York Times:
“For Mr. Trump, the day after found him still a little shellshocked, according to people close to him. Despite the clear momentum behind impeachment among Democrats in recent weeks, some of Mr. Trump’s advisers tried to convince him — and themselves — that Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not have the votes and might not even bring the articles of impeachment to the floor, despite warnings from the White House director of legislative affairs, Eric Ueland, that the votes were there.”
Hoping to distract him from a totally new reality of being a sitting president who is now facing a trial in the Senate, staffers have taken to loading Trump’s schedule with events which will somehow keep him from endlessly watching cable news and firing off angry tweets. But their efforts were for naught, as the president has repeatedly vented his frustrations on social media, even going to far as to suggest that he would win “by default” if Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) decides not to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
Also of concern to Trump is the fact that no president has ever had to face voters while under a cloud of being impeached. That alone could drive voters away in droves:
“No other president has gone on to an election after being impeached. (Andrew) Johnson, who had not been elected in the first place and acceded to the office after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, was shunted aside after being acquitted in a Senate impeachment trial.
“As for (Bill) Clinton, he was in his second term when he was acquitted by the Senate in 1999 and therefore ineligible to run again.”
Even GOP stalwarts are worried that all the energy in 2020 will on the side of Democrats.
John Whitbeck, the Republican Party chairman of Virginia, noted:
“If you are a Trump supporter and you didn’t vote in these off-year elections, I just don’t see how you don’t show up. But I don’t know if that’s going to be enough to overcome the fervor on the other side.
“We spent a ton of money trying to get Trump voters engaged. We’re doing everything we can to account for the high turnout. And still we’ve underestimated it every year. It’s just historic on the other side.”
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