ABC: To Impeach, Dems Face Trump's '90 Percent' 'Hard-Line' Support

March 3rd, 2019 10:12 AM

After the testimony from convicted liar Michael Cohen before the House Oversight Committee last week, the liberal media were convinced he was the key for Democrats to bring down President Trump regardless of what the Special Counsel found.

One of the biggest problems for Democrats, according to ABC host and Clinton lackey George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America Sunday, was that Trump enjoyed ’90 percent’ approval from the GOP, who he seemed to suggest were all hardliners.

With no acknowledgment of the apparent lies Cohen (once again) told Congress last week, Stephanopoulos seemed to paint the Republican grilling of Cohen as something defying the facts of the matter:

Republicans have completely fallen in line. The President's approval rating now among Republicans is close to 90 percent. One of the things we saw at the Cohen hearing this week, with maybe the exception of Justin Amash of Michigan, all the Republicans down the line attacking Michael Cohen implicitly defending the President even though they showed no interest in the kind of issues Cohen was raising at the time.

“And as long as that holds, that's going to be a bar to Democrats who are seeking impeachment of the president. It will be difficult to move forward on impeachment if the Republicans have that hard-line in support of the President,” Stephanopoulos added.

But Stephanopoulos seemed a bit optimistic, saying we didn’t know if that support was going to hold when the Special Counsel investigation was finished or after the flood Democratic investigations. “You’ve now got at least a half dozen committees in the House investigating various parts of the Trump administration and one of the things we'll see over time is whether that chips away at the President's support among Republicans. Right now though, it's very strong.”

 

 

GMA co-host Dan Harris wasn’t so certain and was worried that Democrats “could overreach” with their efforts to unseat the President. “That's one of the big questions I'm going to ask Chairman [Jerry] Nadler this morning, whether he has seen enough to justify impeachment proceedings yet, what he's waiting for,” Stephanopoulos responded. “But one of the things I want to ask him about is the trigger for him for any impeachment investigation.”

Harris seemed unconvinced, warning: “There is a risk here. They could end up looking overly partisan and there would be a backlash.”

Stephanopoulos fell back onto one of the liberal media’s defenses for the Democratic Party during the 2018 midterms and pretended the left wasn’t rabidly seeking impeachment for President Trump. “One thing you're hearing is Republicans talking about impeachment more than Democrats because of that risk. It will depend though on where the evidence is at the time.”

Back in the 90s, Stephanopoulos wouldn’t dare call the so-called feminists and other leftist groups who supported President Bill Clinton “hard-line” for sticking with him.

The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:

ABC’s Good Morning America
March 3, 2019
8:13:51 p.m. Eastern

DAN HARRIS: So, as we saw there in Tara’s report, the President going hard overnight at Mueller and the Democrats and this approach seems to be working. The people in the room loved it and his base is sticking with him.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Republicans have completely fallen in line. The President's approval rating now among Republicans is close to 90 percent. One of the things we saw at the Cohen hearing this week, with maybe the exception of Justin Amash of Michigan, all the Republicans down the line attacking Michael Cohen implicitly defending the President even though they showed no interest in the kind of issues Cohen was raising at the time.

And as long as that holds, that's going to be a bar to Democrats who are seeking impeachment of the president. It will be difficult to move forward on impeachment if the Republicans have that hard-line in support of the President. But we don't know whether that will change in the wake of the Mueller report – We don’t know what he's going to report or whether we're going to see that, and in the wake of more investigations from Democrats.

Tara just talked about Democrats requesting the President's tax returns. You’ve now got at least a half dozen committees in the House investigating various parts of the Trump administration and one of the things we'll see over time is whether that chips away at the President's support among Republicans. Right now though, it's very strong.

HARRIS: I want to pick up on what you are talking about the Democrats investigating. On the show this morning – on This Week, you’ve got the Democratic congressman from New York, Jerry Nadler who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

STEPHANOPOULOS: He’d be in charge of any impeachment proceedings.

HARRIS: That’s exactly right. So, what are the Democrats going to go after next and what are the risks here for Democrats? They could overreach.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That's one of the big questions I'm going to ask Chairman Nadler this morning, whether he has seen enough to justify impeachment proceedings yet, what he's waiting for. One of the things he has said in the past and he actually said this about the Clinton impeachment as well is, you need some sort of bipartisan support to make impeachment work. Now, that may be at the end of the process, not the beginning. But one of the things I want to ask him about is the trigger for him for any impeachment investigation. One thing for sure you are going to see a host of investigations from Democrats on a number of different issues in the coming months.

HARRIS: But many -- There is a risk here. They could end up looking overly partisan and there would be a backlash.

STEPHANOPOULOS: One thing you're hearing is Republicans talking about impeachment more than Democrats because of that risk. It will depend though on where the evidence is at the time.

HARRIS: George, thank you.