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Two days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that an “inquiry” into possibly impeaching president Donald Trump had begun, the president, through his reelection campaign, sent out this e-mail to 65 million addresses: “It’s time to set something straight once and for all. The Democrats’ constant personal attacks, vicious lies, and now these baseless impeachment attacks, have never had anything to do with me.… Their goal has always been to silence YOU. They want to steal YOUR voice and YOUR vote.”
At the bottom was a button to donate to Trump’s “Official Impeachment Defense Task Force” with a note that the president would get a list of everyone who made a donation.
Within 24 hours, the campaign raised $5 million, with 50,000 new donors stepping up to join with the president. When added to the $5 million the president raised from an evening fundraiser the day after Pelosi’s announcement and another $3 million at a breakfast meeting the next day, his campaign raked in more than $13 million in 72 hours.
On Monday, Tim Murtaugh, Trump’s campaign director, publicly thanked Pelosi for the surge in giving: “This has the president’s supporters — and also independents — engaged in the campaign and supporting President Trump in ways that they were not doing before, to this level of intensity. We have Nancy Pelosi and the impeachment inquiry to thank for that.”
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By the time the dust had settled, the Trump campaign reported to the Federal Election Commission that not only did it raise $125 million in the third quarter, that amount was $20 million more than it raised in the second quarter. And for the year, the Trump campaign has raised $308 million, almost a third of the billion dollars expected to be needed to reelect the president. And “early money” is the most important in any election.
This is exactly what Pelosi feared would happen once she opened Pandora’s Box of impeachment: Even though her announcement didn’t have the force of a full House vote, she was afraid that opening that box would not only fire up Trump’s base, but bring independent voters to his camp as well.
In a face-to-face matchup between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Rasmussen Reports noted that, among likely voters, support is equally split. But Rasmussen said that there are 11 percent who are independent voters who will likely decide the November 2020 election.
And it’s among independents that Trump, thanks to Pelosi, is making the greatest inroads. Prior to Pelosi’s announcement, Joe Biden held an 18-point lead over the president. According to the latest IBD/TIPP poll released on Monday, Biden now holds just a mere one-point lead over the president.
For Elizabeth Warren, the news is even worse. In early polling, Warren led Trump by two percent among independents. Now, according to the IBD poll, Trump is beating her outright, 49 to 43 percent.
Photo: AP Images
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American, writing primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].
