President Donald Trump may have no choice but to run for re-election in 2020 even if he has wearied of the constant battles.
That is the claim of New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, who says Trump will likely have to engage in what may be a historically ugly reelection campaign to hold onto the Oval Office and, thereby, stay out of jail.
According to Goldberg, "In our current moment, removing the president through impeachment is essentially impossible, given that at least 20 Senate Republicans would have to join Democrats. Representative Jerrold Nadler, the New York Democrat who will soon lead the House Judiciary Committee, told me he wouldn’t consider impeachment proceedings without at least some Republican support."
"This leaves us in a dangerous situation," she elaborated. "Under Justice Department guidelines, sitting presidents can’t be indicted. Ex-presidents, however, can. Experts on both the left and the right believe that if Trump is voted out of office in 2020, before the five-year statute of limitations on campaign finance violations runs out, he could find himself in serious legal jeopardy. "
Noting that conservative attorney Andrew McCarthy has already made the case that Trump faces certain indictment if he is out of office, Goldberg stated Trump will be frantic to remain president and that he could actually become even more unhinged.
"The 2020 presidential election was always going to be extraordinarily ugly, but one can only imagine what Trump will do if the alternative to the White House is the big house," she predicted, adding that Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) has confessed that he is worried Trump may create an incident that involves “our troops or internal domestic security.”
"There’s simply no way around it — as long as Individual-1 is on the ticket, the 2020 election is set to be a banana republic-style death match," the columnist continued. "Trump will almost certainly try to criminalize his opponent — crowds at his rallies have taken to chanting 'Lock her up' at the mention of virtually any Democratic woman’s name."
"And Democrats won’t be able to uphold the general principle that in American elections, losing doesn’t mean personal ruination, because for Trump it will and it should," Goldberg warned.
You can read the whole piece here. Subscription may be required.