Two former aides to President George W. Bush have put forward a theory for why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is delaying sending the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate.
Paul Rosenzweig, who served as the Department of Homeland Security’s deputy assistant secretary for policy under the Bush administration, tweeted Monday that Pelosi could want to ensure Trump “is still under impeachment” when he delivers a State of the Union address on Feb 4.
“Imagine what it would be like if he got to give the SOTU having been cleared by the Senate ― it would be a full-blown triumphal rant,” Rosenzweig wrote.
“But if the impeachment is still pending, it might, instead, be an unhinged narcissistic screed of almost unimaginable insanity,” he added. “Just think of how painful it would be for 53 Republican Senators to sit in the halls of Congress, watching a live meltdown on national TV. That, alone, would be worth the price of admission.”
“Maybe I’m wrong and this hasn’t crossed her mind ― but I love the idea,” he concluded.
David Frum, a former speechwriter for Bush who is now a senior editor at The Atlantic, cited and expanded on Rosenzweig’s idea.
“If there’s been a trial and there’s been a sham hearing and the Senate has slapped together an acquittal, imagine the tone of President Trump on the 4th of February: triumphal, obnoxious, overbearing, ‘I win, I win, you lose, you lose,’” Frum said Monday during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Last Word.”
“If the impeachment is still pending on the 4th of February, can you imagine how insane that State of the Union is going to be?” he asked host Lawrence O’Donnell.
“It’s going to be an hour of paranoia and grievance and narcissism of a kind that is going to terrify, as Paul suggests, that will terrify even many of his supporters,” Frum said. “So if it’s not wrapped up by the 4th of February, that could have very dramatic consequences.”