A proposal to start impeachment hearings that failed in the House on Wednesday led Donald Trump to optimistically proclaim that his presidency is safe at his North Carolina rally last night. But his proclamation has some White House officials worried the president really believes he is out of the woods.
According to a report at Politico, close aides to the president worry that his comment that "we have all this [impeachment] behind us," may be based on an unfounded notion by Trump about how Congress works.
Speaking at his campaign rally in Greenville, N.C., Trump boasted to the crowd, "I just heard that the United States House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted to kill the most ridiculous project I’ve ever been involved in: the resolution -- how stupid is that -- on impeachment. I want to thank those Democrats because many of them voted for us, the vote was a totally lopsided 332-95-1.”
Politico states, "First of all, a few smart, seasoned people in the White House wondered to us Wednesday night if TRUMP actually believes this vote ended impeachment. Of course, it didn’t. This was a procedural vote that means nothing in the grand scheme of things. "
The report continues, " The White House did, though, want a big vote on tabling this motion ."
"House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was the one who offered the motion to table the impeachment resolution. The administration believed it would send a message to the public that a large majority of the House was against impeachment -- it's a convenient talking point. (The other live option was to send it to Judiciary.)"
Politico also notes Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mark Meadows (R-NC) remained in Washington instead of accompanying Trump to North Carolina over concerns over how the vote would turn out.
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