How Trump's anti-impeachment campaign to confuse Americans could work -- if voters aren't paying attention
President Donald Trump's strategy to save himself from impeachment is seemingly to point fingers at everyone else, whether it's the truth or not.
An analysis by columnist Henry Olsen in The Washington Post explained that if Trump can successfully create a conspiracy theory around former Vice President Joe Biden, saying that he is somehow to blame for Trump asking Ukraine for help in the 2020 election.
Step one, according to the outline by The Post, go on the attack against Biden's son, who is not running for any electoral office. Part two is to bring Republicans together around the idea that Democrats are just sore 2016 losers. Finally, he intends to rally Independent voters around Trump's troubled economy, claiming it's amazing.
His attacks on Biden end up helping him fight Biden as well as impeachment, and as Olsen explained, conservative media will have the villain they've been looking for. Republicans could turn to investigate Biden and his son to try and distract Americans from Trump's impeachment.
"Trump is also focusing on his less-partisan backers with a more populist approach, arguing on Twitter on Saturday that his opponents 'are trying to stop me, because I am fighting for you,'" Olsen quoted.
The only problem with this assumption is that it presumes Trump can stay on message about the economy. As evidenced in 2018, he can't. As impeachments heat up, Trump will continue his Twitter rants, turning the story from the economy to his freakouts.
"This strategy is well-designed to stop the bleeding in public support," Olsen said. "So long as Trump’s voters remain loyal, Republicans in the House and Senate will likely stay in line no matter what they personally believe. Once that base is secured, Trump can start to pivot off of any new revelations about Biden or the Democratic efforts to punch holes in their story and take the attack to them."
For voters not paying attention or who aren't up on the facts, this can be an easy distraction. In an era of false information coming out of Trump's campaign, Fox News or right-wing conspiracy sites, uninformed voters can more easily be swayed.
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