Now McCarthy Dumps Trump, Will Not Lobby Other GOPers To Vote Against Impeachment Like He Did the First Time

The West Wing is reportedly already a ghost town, filled only with a few staffers who avoid Trump like the plague. Apparently that’s not difficult, since he rarely goes to the Oval Office any more, he just watches TV and fumes, sans Twitter. The latest ripple to hit Trump world is that Kevin McCarthy, following in the footsteps of Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell and many other GOP lawmakers, is not going to make an effort to defend Trump’s second impeachment. New York Times:

House Republican leaders have decided not to formally lobby members of the party against voting to impeach President Trump, making a tacit break with him as they scrambled to gauge support within their ranks for a vote on Wednesday to charge him with inciting violence against the country.

While Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, has said that he will “personally” oppose impeachment and sought to steer Republicans in a different direction, his decision not to officially lean on lawmakers to vote against the move constituted a subtle shift away from the president. In the past — including the last time Mr. Trump was impeached by the House — Mr. McCarthy and House leaders have lobbied Republicans intensely to stand behind Mr. Trump on nearly every issue, demanding the same degree of absolute loyalty that the president himself has required.

In the Senate, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, has also conspicuously declined to defend Mr. Trump in any way or to speak out against the impeachment push, which — if it resulted in a Senate conviction — could bar the president from holding public office again. Two Senate Republicans had already called upon the president to resign, and advisers privately speculated that a dozen or so more could ultimately favor convicting the president at trial.

There is dialogue about how if a removal of Trump is actually achieved, how he will lose the many perks of being president, in addition to America gaining the biggest perk of all, that he will be barred from running for any further public office.

That begs the question of whether it would be possible for him to mount a credible campaign in 2024 in any event. There is no way he would be running again on the Republican ticket, I think we can say that with some measure of certainty. Whether he can mount a viable third party offense with the Trump Party would be intriguing to see. And in that eventuality, he would bleed off votes from the GOP candidate, whomever s/he may be. Democrats have certainly seen how that works.

This is a win/win situation for Democrats. If Trump can’t run again in 2024 because he’s barred from doing so, then he’s toast. And if he can run again, on the Trump Party ticket, then he’ll drag down the GOP into even greater depths. I like this set up.

And truth be known, I don’t think Trump wants to make the effort to run in 2024. I think that’s what he tells the rubes in order to fleece them, “our incredible journey together has just begun.” I think he just wants to be a talk show host — which is all he was in the White House and before — and have his supporters pay lots of attention and send him cash.

In all events, Impeachment II is going to be very different from the original Impeachment. This could be a lot like the political version of the Godfather, where the sequel was actually better than the first one. Stay tuned. Trump “will not be SILENCED!” as he screamed on the White House Twitter feed, before he was silenced.

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