In a huge blow to anti-Trump momentum, Nancy Pelosi announced she does not plan to impeach Donald Trump, citing that “he’s just not worth it.” This bland and superficial statement reeks of deeper strategy. Well, Donald Trump’s impeachment is definitely worth it to Democrats, especially ones less likely to understand or be sympathetic to long-term political tactics. They’d like to see Donald Trump marched out of the White House in handcuffs, but honestly, that will never happen; he’s a white male and Leader of the Free World. The World’s existing power structure would never permit those optics to degrade the highest Western figurehead position no matter what the laws say.
However, Nancy Pelosi has proven herself to be a master strategist and her announcement may serve the bigger purpose of lessening democratic culpability in triggering any future consequences for the President’s missteps leading up to the 2016 elections. It also may indicate that the Mueller investigation may be coming to an end.
Donald Trump and his media disciples at Fox News and various other conservative outlets have done a great job convincing their following that Robert Mueller’s investigation is a “witch hunt.” They’ve effectively brainwashed their supporters to believe that such an inordinate amount of Trump Campaign members being in contact with Russian officials during the 2016 Presidential Campaign shouldn’t be a concern. To them, Democrats and their premature calls for impeachment seem more like a group without reason, persecuting Donald Trump for being a prosperous white male; introducing Articles of Impeachment on Middle America’s supposed “savior,” especially if it’s by someone like Muslim Representative Rashida Tlaib or Ilhan Omar, would definitely inflame Conservative/Liberal tensions ten-fold and bring America closer to that civil war conservatives so often introducing into political conversations.
By calling off the impeachment dogs, Nancy Pelosi delivers a small ephemeral victory to Republicans but puts the Democratic party in the perfect position to say they called the witch hunt off but the evidence from Mueller’s probe left them with no choice but to impeach. This strategy will help to claim more of the 2020 Republican electorate, which is well dug in and standing firm behind Trump. Just like when Trump tried to disown his infamous Government shutdown by agreeing to open the government for three weeks, Nancy Pelosi is essentially agreeing to cease her impeachment pursuit unless overwhelming evidence of Presidential criminality arises. With this brilliant strategy, she can then blame an impeachment on the Special Councel thereby preserving Democratic party’s image. This will also make it easier for Republicans to vote in favor of impeachment, being their constituents will see Robert Mueller, and not Democrats, as the cause. Speaker Pelosi may be playing chess on an unprecedented level.