In First 24 Hours After Pelosi Impeachment Announcement, Trump Rakes in Massive $5 Million
Being hunted by the Democrats apparently can be very profitable.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally threw her weight behind an impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives. Never mind that just declaring an inquiry isn’t quite how this all works; you kind of have to vote to start one. The point is that the California congresswoman, after months of ducking the issue, was finally throwing the full weight of the Democrat caucus in the House behind an impeachment investigation.
Also on Tuesday, the president called the Ukraine whistleblower controversy “nothing more than a continuation of the Greatest and most Destructive Witch Hunt of all time!”
….You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a continuation of the Greatest and most Destructive Witch Hunt of all time!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2019
At least judging by what they did with their money, Republicans seem to have concurred.
According to ABC News, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee said they raised $1 million in the three hours after Pelosi’s announcement and $5 million in the 24 hours following it.
Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, hailed the news on Twitter.
“In the 24 hours since news of Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment announcement, @realDonaldTrump’s campaign & @GOP have BLOWN OUT fundraising!” he tweeted.
“$5 Million combined in 24 hrs. Donors in all 50 states. Huge groundswell of support leading to Trump landslide in 2020!”
In the 24 hours since news of Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment announcement, @realDonaldTrump’s campaign & @GOP have BLOWN OUT fundraising!
✅$5 Million combined in 24 hrs
✅Donors in all 50 statesHuge groundswell of support leading to Trump landslide in 2020!
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) September 25, 2019
Apparently, using the wolfish impeachment machine of the Democrats for fundraising is somehow verboten, since ABC News’ report openly decried the methods that the Trump campaign used to raise that $5 million.
“Moments after Pelosi delivered her statement, the Trump campaign quickly fired off a string of fundraising emails — at least four emails within 24 hours — launched dozens of new Facebook ads asking supporters to join an ‘Official Impeachment Defense Task Force’ and released a slickly produced video decrying Democrats for being ‘solely focused’ on impeachment, which the president himself tweeted out,” they reported Wednesday.
As for the “solely focused” part — have the people at ABC News not watched their own coverage over the past few days? What else have the Democrats been focused on? It seems that gun control thing — which was so desperately urgent that Beto O’Rourke seemed to be making hourly appearances on cable news using every permutation of George Carlin’s seven words to plead his case — doesn’t seem so urgent anymore.
And as for the “dozens of new Facebook ads” and the “slickly produced video,” the poor, innocent babes at ABC News have also apparently never witnessed a modern political campaign, since the language implies their reporters are genuinely shocked by these things. If these stunned journalists really want to see some crass opportunism in electronic electioneering, I have a few Nancy Pelosi fundraising emails I’d like them to take a look at when they have a moment.
It’s also been a pretty good week for the Trump campaign in general. In addition to fundraising off Pelosi’s impeachment inquiry announcement, there also have been several major Trump events that have netted $30 million for his campaign and the Republican Party.
….and campaign says it has raised $5 mill in last 24 hours. That get close to $30 mill between campaign and RNC in a week.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 25, 2019
GOP chief of staff Richard Walters said the haul was “because of Hollywood extremists and the continued witch hunt being led by deranged Dems in the House.”
“Next to @realDonaldTrump, Democrats are our best fundraisers!” he tweeted. “Thanks, Nancy!“
.@TeamTrump and @GOP raised nearly $30M in last week because of Hollywood extremists and the continued witch hunt being led by deranged Dems in the House.
Next to @realDonaldTrump, Democrats are our best fundraisers! Thanks, Nancy! https://t.co/8yUgLAv5US
— Richard Walters (@rww_gop) September 25, 2019
It’s worth pointing out that both sides benefited, fundraising-wise, from the impeachment inquiry announcement. According to The New York Times, the Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue took in $4.2 million on Monday and $4.6 million on Tuesday.
But then again, you’d expect those sorts of numbers on the Democrat side. Of course this would energize them. Impeachment, long assumed to be dead, has been given a jolt of electricity from Dr. Frankenstein and sent tottering along its way — this time with Nancy Pelosi as a traveling companion. Were I a Democrat, I’d be psyched, too.
The fundraising numbers are proof that, at least for now, the party base isn’t shirking from Trump. Nor does it have any reason to. The transcript of the president’s call with the Ukrainian president revealed no quid pro quo involving the release of funding — indeed, no talk of the funding at all — and the whistleblower report was another yawn.
As for the public in general, polling thus far has been inconclusive on the effect impeachment might have; a Quinnipiac survey showed virtually no change from other polls taken before the Ukraine scandal broke, while Morning Consult showed a 7-point spike in support for impeachment. Even with the spike, voters were deadlocked at 43 percent for and against impeachment. Those aren’t numbers that look spectacular if you’re a Democrat, particularly if you’re a vulnerable moderate in one of the newly won former GOP strongholds the party used to flip the House in 2018.
Despite the febrile coverage in the media, unless House Democrats can uncover a lot more dirt on Trump via their inquiry, impeachment is going to be a thorough waste of time that’ll likely end up costing the party at the ballot box. Frankenstein’s monster may indeed be up and walking around, but he’s not going anywhere Donald Trump needs to worry about. And the longer he stays on his feet, the more money is going to find its way into the president’s campaign coffers.
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