Trump knows he'll likely be impeached. He's trying to undermine it and get it over with

[StarfishSaver]

And he's trying to goad the Democrats into starting the impeachment inquiry before they've developed a strong case and plenty early enough to give him more than enough time so that it won't matter in 2020.

He knows (because his lawyers and advisors have told him) that if an impeachment inquiry is launched now, its scope will be constricted to what they now have and it will be very difficult to continue gathering a broad range of solid evidence on topics that haven't yet been fully explored. By rushing the process, they hope to push the Democrats into going in unprepared and with fewer arrows in their quivers.

Trump's team knows that they are in much greater peril if the various committees of jurisdiction other than the Judiciary Committee continue digging outside of the parameters of impeachment. They don't want to be bombarded with incoming from several different committees. They need to have ONE enemy, one target, one foil, to focus the media's and public's attention on. When they pick one enemy to fight and zero in on them with everything they have, they tend to win.

But they know they can't fight on several fronts at one time. They don't want Schiff and the House Intelligence Committee rooting around in Trump's foreign entanglements while, at the same time, Ways and Means obtains and analyzes his tax returns while Waters and her Financial Services Committee are going through his banking records and calling in Deutsche Bank executives to testify about them and Cummings and the Oversight Committee are hauling administration officials in to explain themselves. And they know that none of this is likely to happen in an impeachment inquiry since the impeachment process is not the best venue for developing new evidence (at least not evidence that falls within the Judiciary Committee's ordinary jurisdiction). Impeachment inquiries better suited to weighing and considering the evidence gathered elsewhere and presented to them.

Instead of dealing with several House investigations, Trump's people want to focus like a laser beam only on the Judiciary Committee's impeachment inquiry and to narrow that focus on the Mueller Report so that the Articles of Impeachment are limited to those specific issues, which are already known to the public, who haven't been swayed in great numbers by it. They want and need to make the impeachment inquiry the boogeyman, instead of dealing with several different investigations on several different fronts.

They want nothing more than for the Democrats to rush in before they've completed their other investigations and impeach Trump on a fairly limited scope of wrongdoing and they want them to do it soon so that the Senate can acquit by the end of the summer and then leave Trump more than a year to refocus the argument away from impeachment and leave him plenty of time to throw out 400 or so new outrageous distractions and make his impeachment an irrelevant distant memory come November 2020.

Don't be fooled.

Fortunately, Nancy Pelosi and her team know all of this, too, and aren't allowing themselves to be baited into jumping the gun, either by Trump or the people on our side.

[YOHABLO]

1. There has been some commentary on that's exactly what he's hoping for; to embolden his base.

Not sure on that.

[StarfishSaver]

2. I don't think it's so much about emboldening his base, although that will likely happen

But he knows he can fight it and win if he can consolidate everything into an impeachment inquiry and give himself one enemy to fight instead of facing multiple investigations in the House and fighting several different adversaries. He also knows that if he gets impeached and acquitted soon, it will be largely forgotten by next fall.

[TwilightZone]

4. I think there's little doubt that it would rile up his base.

These are the same people who blew a gasket at "deplorables" and got out the vote as a result.

He pretty much has to keep them jacked up in a desperate hope they'll be enough to reelect him. Retaining the presidency may be the only thing keep him from getting indicted by multiple jurisdictions.

[Midnight Writer]

9. I think it will definitely jack up his base, moreso when it loses in the Senate. Winning!

Trumpists are not voting on policies or philosophies. They are voting on emotion. Fear, anger, the strongest of the emotions, are being exploited quite skillfully by the Republicans. And with all the personal info they farm from social media, they can minutely target this emotional response from the most susceptible.

impeachment will be Trumped up as a battle between Good and Evil, and since the fix is already assured in the Senate, Trump will be the winner. The strongman. Daddy figure who beat the bad guys.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

11. I don't think I buy this theory. No way does the

Egomaniac want his name in the history books as being impeached. (Convicted or not)

[StarfishSaver]

14. He doesn't care about that - he has no shame.

And being impeached on a party line by a Democratic House and acquitted by the Senate won't even leave a mark on his ego. In fact, it will be a badge of honor. And if he can get it out of the way early enough, it won't have much impact on his electoral viability.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

16. Just disagree. It's like us not impeaching... history books

will write that despite his crimes he was never impeached with an asterisk that we didn't think it was worth it or that Pelosi said no Same with trump, his name with impeachment lives forevermore - he knows that blaming it on overzealous Dems would just be an asterisk.

[Fullduplexxx]

3. Meanwhile the gop pack the courts

[StarfishSaver]

5. Impeaching him won't stop that

[global1]

6. Timing Is Everything.....

Let's not give Trump the advantage here. Now that we know what he wants - don't give it to him.

[Honeycombe8]

7. Schiff said they're considering opening an impeachment investigation.

That's because it may help them get the unredacted Mueller Report and other documents. They would have a stronger legal case to get them.

I don't know.

[StarfishSaver]

13. Yes, he said it's possible a court might give more weight to requests for testimony and documents

But he also knows that this is just a guess since, while a court might give more weight to their efforts to obtain such things as the unredacted Mueller Report, there's no legal or procedural requirement that they do and no one knows what any given court will do in a particular circumstance. It's just as likely that a court won't give any more weight to such a request in an impeachment context than it would under more traditional oversight since the legal standard would be the same.

[DemocracyMouse]

8. Really astute analysis. Keep hitting Trump with the political equivalent of schrapnel

He's certainly generated a hive of legitimate targets.

[patphil]

10. Trump wants the Democrats to do it quickly without proper planning

I figure it should take 4-6 months or more to get to the point of having the full House vote on Articles of Impeachment.
The whole mess of Trump's presidency, his business empire, and his dirty dealing with Russia and other countries such as Saudi Arabia needs to be unveiled before the vote is called for.
It's not about whether or not the Senate will follow through, its about doing the right thing and letting the citizens see the whole mess.
Ultimately it will be the 2020 election that will deliver the final verdict.
It's not possible the Republicans in the Senate will vote to remove Trump from office. As Dirty Harry says, "That's not gonna happen".

It's the process, and the truth revealed that's important.

Patrick Phillips

[StarfishSaver]

12. Yes!

[Andy823]

15. I agree

I also think he wants it done sooner than later because he knows nothing will happen in the Senate. If Mitch stops it from being voted on, it's over, if it did go to a vote on the floor of the Senate, republicans would protect him. Next year, closer to the election, and things would be much different. Republicans who are running would be held accountable for their votes to "save" trump, and Mitch would have a harder time say NO VOTE when he is also running again.

The sooner the better for trump and his hopes for a second term.

[Generic Other]

17. I think when I say Impeach I mean

investigations should start, witnesses called, etc. Most of us are just cutting to the chase. I suspect the pre-impeachment investigations and hearings will be worth the wait.

[StarfishSaver]

18. That's all happening now.

And you're right - it will definitely be worth the wait!

Just as the people who were beating up on Nadler for his "strongly worded letters" are now seeing that he laid the right groundwork for the contempt citation.

[Azathoth]

19. Trump isn't getting impeached

Do you really think Dem leadership will allow impeachment proceedings to begin in the middle of a presidential campaign season? If there was any intent to impeach him, there would be preliminary hearings already. Instead, we have Nadler spending time "deliberating" on whether or not to issue subpoenas. We're locked into a "score political points and run out the clock" strategy.

Besides, ramping up impeachment hearings doesn't mean the other committees can't continue their investigations. Articles of Impeachment can be added throughout the process. But the strategy of holding our fire until all the investigations are complete is just a euphemism for running out the clock, because Trump is stonewalling ALL the investigations and they will never wrap up until he is out of office.

[MFGsunny]

20. I totally agree.

The scheme MF45 always uses via his transactional lenses =

1) hurry process up to some conclusion (remember Barr & Mueller?)

2) let little bad news out WHICH HE WILL DESCRIBE IN A 100% LIE as to what truth is/was;

3) get his flunkie "officials" to parrot identical lie spread in #1 above

4) hurry over to Senate

5) impeachment fails on the votes as MF45 knows them now

6) play MF45's usual passive-aggressive routine :: victor victim victor victim (rinse/repeat)

7) "clock" runs out on impeachment impact ...... MF45 thinks he wins.