Trump ‘wins in a reality show and loses in reality’: Democrats’ endgame is coming into focus

Following the public release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report, the different endgame strategies Democrats will employ against President Donald Trump are coming into focus.

On Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) became the first 2020 candidate to call for the House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against Trump. Former HUD Secretary Castro told MSNBC's Ali Velshi on Saturday he thinks it would be "perfectly reasonable" for Congress to pursue impeachment.

“Now that the dam has broken, now that Elizabeth Warren has taken this step, crossed the Rubicon — whatever metaphor you want to use — how many others will now follow?” NBC News national affairs analyst John Heilemann wondered while being interviewed by Nicolle Wallace on Friday.

“We could well now see a rush — not of all the Democratic candidates — but now that she’s taken that position, you can quickly see a lot of them in this position because it’s not a coordinated thing,” Heilemann explained. “All of these candidates are acting in their own interest because she’s taken a position that will get her traction with a large segment of the nominating electorate and a lot of people are going to feel a lot of pressure over this weekend to follow on that path.”

Meanwhile, House Democrats are stepping up their messaging efforts against Trump, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

"House Democrats, meanwhile, plan to take on the separate task of trying to distill and publicize the most alarming parts of the Mueller report in hopes of making the president’s behavior in office feel consequential for more voters," The Post noted. "They are preparing a rival reality show of their own through hearings with Attorney General William P. Barr and others. Democrats privately say their models are the Watergate hearings into President Richard M. Nixon’s misdeeds and the Republican hearings about the 2012 Benghazi attack, which were designed to damage Clinton’s reputation."

“Donald Trump wins in a reality show and loses in reality,” Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson said. “If he is able to brand things like a reality show host, he will win the debate. But that only works until people start to see the consequences.”

"Conduct a follow-through investigation out of the committees that is really just an attempt to enter into the record that which most of the public will never read in the Mueller report. Turn it into something that gets played out on a very public stage," Democratic strategist Brian Fallon suggested.