Miranda Devine: Impeachment stench is an electoral gift for Trump
Allegations of on-air flatulence are not the only cause for hilarity in the Democrats’ attempts to get Trump, as the witch hunt backfires on the left, writes Miranda Devine.
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The latest attempt to depose US President Donald Trump has turned into such a confusing snooze-fest that a loud fart on live television during a serious impeachment discussion became the signature diversion of the week.
Eric Swalwell, a Californian congressman who is one of the Democratic Party’s more genial anti-Trump attack dogs, was mid-sentence on MSNBC when he was interrupted by the unmistakeable sound of breaking wind.
He had just said “the evidence is uncontradicted that the president used taxpayer dollars to help him cheat …” when he paused, a huge telltale noise erupted, and his body was propelled slightly forward. The trace of a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth as he finished his sentence: “ … an election.”
Despite a torrent of speculation, Swalwell denied that he was responsible for the on-air toot and MSNBC issued a statement declaring the noise was a coffee mug “scraping across a desk” in the studio.
In offices and kitchens across America, countless reconstructions took place of mugs scraping across desks. But no evidence emerged of any resulting sound remotely resembling what was heard.
Fartgate thus became the number one trending topic on Twitter, as fingers pointed at the 39-year-old Swalwell.
There was some suspicion that the culprit was the host of MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews”, especially since the cable channel previously has been plagued by a similar phantom flatulence. But, since Matthews was off-camera at the time, no one can say for sure.
So poor Swalwell will be forever associated with one of the most ignominious moments in political commentary.
MORE FROM MIRANDA DEVINE: Impeachment just an attempt to overturn election
We’re yet to get to the bottom of it, but Fartgate momentarily united the country in hilarity.
God knows America needed a break from the relentless uncivil war over Trump.
But when the air had cleared, Democrats were still left with the stench of their ill-judged impeachment gambit.
Now they are home in their electorates for Thanskgiving week to face the music. Judging by the polls, it won’t be sweet. After two weeks of public impeachment hearings, voters are less convinced than they were at the start of the process that Trump should be impeached.
Opposition to impeaching Trump among crucial independent, or swinging, voters jumped a whopping 10 points to 47 per cent over the first week of the public hearings, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, which Trump won by just 23,000 votes in 2016, a Marquette University poll published on Wednesday found 94 per cent of Republicans opposed impeachment as did 53 per cent of registered voters overall, up slightly since hearings began.
Then there’s the “Blexit” metric, the Democrats’ worst nightmare.
Two polls last week showed Trump’s approval among black voters up around 34 per cent.
The Democrats’ all-smoke-no-fire game simply has turned off voters already disillusioned with the failed Russia-collusion probe.
Even the Democrat Chairman of the impeachment committee, Harvard lawyer Adam Schiff, sounds like he has cold feet. On Sunday he told CNN he wasn’t even sure if he would vote for impeachment.
Say what? This is the guy who orchestrated the whole thing, trying to save face after the failure of Russiagate, also his pet project.
His office even held a secret meeting with the so-called whistleblower, a registered Democrat who never even heard Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky before he lodged a formal complaint against the President and sparked the current crisis.
Now Schiff is having second thoughts.
Somehow, he and his boss Nancy Pelosi have managed to pull off a miracle with their impeachment gambit. They’ve actually united Republicans around Donald Trump.
MORE FROM MIRANDA DEVINE: Why Trump is certain to win in 2020
Trump’s job approval among Republicans has risen to 90 per cent, according to the latest Gallup poll, and Trump claims it’s as high as 95 per cent.
“There has never been so much unity and spirit in the Republican Party, as there is right now!” tweeted Trump on Friday.
“You’ve seen the polls, I’m going through the roof,” he boasted on Fox & Friends. “In Wisconsin, in the swing states, I’m well up … because the people get it. It’s a witch-hunt.”
After all the hot air in Washington we still are no closer to any evidence that Trump committed an impeachable offence in his phone call to the Ukrainian president in July. Inappropriate, perhaps, but that’s his middle name.
And as the economy continues to hum, the president’s job approval leapt to 48 per cent from 43 per cent since before the hearings, according to an Emerson poll.
No wonder Democrats in the 31 districts Trump won in 2016 nervously are trying to change the subject. Anything but impeachment.
Yesterday, Democrat Brenda Lawrence, who has a safe seat in Michigan, backed away from removing the president.
“We are so close to an election. I will tell you, sitting here knowing how divided this country is, I don’t see the value of taking him out of office,” she told local radio. Especially since the Republican-controlled Senate will have the final say.
MORE BY MIRANDA DEVINE: Trumpophobes still don’t see Trump’s secret power
Yes, impeachment overreach by the Democrats has turned out to be an electoral gift for Trump.
The Marquette poll shows him flipping the tables to lead every Democratic presidential candidate, including Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, by three points.
So dire do the Democrats’ 2020 prospects now look that latecomers are starting to muscle their way into the presidential field, including 77-year-old billionaire Michael Bloomberg, with speculation that Michelle Obama or (still) Hillary Clinton may follow.
Like the boy who cried wolf, The Democrats have found that if you spend long enough shrieking that Trump is an existential threat, eventually voters stop believing you.
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Rudy Giuliani is Donald’s weakest link
Rudy Giuliani should stay off TV.
His latest on-air gaffe on the weekend was to tell Fox News he has “an insurance policy” if the President throws him “under the bus” over the Ukraine saga.
This was a day after Donald Trump lavished praise on his personal attorney as “a great crime-fighter [and] the best mayor in the history of New York City”.
Giuliani quickly took to Twitter to say he meant “insurance” against the Bidens, not Trump.
But the damage was done.
No disrespect to Giuliani, who is rightly hailed for his successes as mayor of New York City — first in bringing down the appalling crime rate he had inherited from previous Democrat administrations and then for uniting and leading the city in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.
But science shows that by the time you reach the age of 75, no matter how sharp your intellect, you probably will experience atrophy of the frontal lobe of the brain, which is the bit in charge of inhibitions.
This means you may inadvertently blurt out unwanted thoughts that get you into trouble or take up gambling or some such.
So, when Giuliani goes on live TV, it may be that his gaffe filter is not working as well as it once did. It’s great sport for the media but keeps landing him in hot water.
Miranda Devine is in New York through 2020 to cover current affairs for The Daily Telegraph