Trump's impeachment strategy could blow up in his face: analysis

Former President Donald Trump reportedly wants to turn his second impeachment trial into a circus in which he can air his false claims about the 2020 election being stolen from him.

However, the Washington Post's Philip Bump believes that Trump's impeachment strategy could completely blow up in his face given that all of Trump's efforts to prove election fraud so far have crashed and burned in courts all across the country.

"There is no credible evidence of significant fraud in the election," Bump writes. "There are lots of insinuations, memes, debunked claims and formal affidavits making vague allegations, but there is nothing to show that even hundreds of votes nationally were cast illegally, much less the tens of thousands needed to call into question Trump's electoral-vote loss."

Bump warns that forcing the Senate to adjudicate Trump's voter fraud claims will only expose them as flimsy and fraudulent on a national stage. Additionally, he writes that it will make voting to acquit Trump on charges of inciting an insurrection all the more difficult.

"Instead of defending him against the most serious charge any president has faced, Trump is demanding that his team defend his pride," Bump concludes. "Instead of using the moment to rationalize his post-election rhetoric as harmless, he's apparently hoping to use the platform provided by the trial to amplify the rhetoric that led to the violence in the first place."