Trump turning impeachment into an asset for defeating Democrats

Politico:

Donald Trump is on the verge of becoming just the third U.S. president to be impeached. But his allies couldn’t care less about this week’s history-making, legacy-shaping vote.

Instead, they’re singularly focused on the vote that will come on Nov. 3, 2020 — and already choreographing an election strategy that capitalizes on impeachment itself.

At the heart of the strategy from the Trump campaign and the GOP is a belief that the more Trump and his allies embrace impeachment — framing it as the inevitable outcome of a system run by partisan elites — the more voters beyond the president’s base are likely to gravitate toward that message.

“We now have a tangible example of what happens when you elect Democrats to go to Washington. This is what you get,” said Rick Gorka, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Together, Trump’s reelection team and the RNC have spent $11 million on impeachment-related ads since the inquiry began on Sept. 24, and they plan to drop another $350,000 on advertising this week, according to the RNC.

Seven party officials, Trump campaign staffers and White House aides who detailed the GOP’s post-impeachment strategy acknowledged some damage from impeachment so far and risks in the months ahead. But they’re betting on their ability to offset those downsides with an aggressive push to use data and polling to rev up Trump voters.

For instance, some polls have shown that impeachment has driven key demographic groups, such as suburban women and independent voters, further from Trump. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey released Monday found that 60 percent of suburban women support impeachment, along with 56 percent of independent women.

But Republican operatives and Trump aides say impeachment has electrified the president’s base heading into an election year. They compare the current moment to last year’s scorched-earth fight to appoint Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Not since sexual assault accusations against the former White House lawyer resulted in the most contentious Senate confirmation process in years have the president’s core supporters been more energized. In their view, Trump — like Kavanaugh — is merely the victim of a smear campaign: guilty of nothing and targeted only because of ideology and politics.
...

They have certainly energized the Trump base as can be seen by the Trump rallies which more than pout Democrat campaigners to shame.  The bogus attacks on Kavanaugh as well as the ridiculous impeachment effort of the Democrats against the President have angered the GOP base and should lead to the defeat of vulnerable Democrats who are not in rotten districts.