Cook Political Report editor calls impeachment inquiry risky move for Democrats

The founder and editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report said Tuesday that Democrats are making a risky move with their impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

“If I were Democrats, I don’t think I would do this,” Charlie Cook, whose publication analyzes election trends and forecasts outcomes, said at an event hosted by Hill Center DC.

{mosads}“It sucks all the oxygen out of the room” ahead of the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Cook said, and could undermine Democratic efforts to oust Trump next year.

“If I were a Democrat, I would want every bit of the energy to be focused on winning the Nov. 3 election and not on this, regardless of what the merits may be,” Cook added. “I think having a focus on the election and impeachment are somewhat contradictory.”

Cook said an impeachment process that did not result in Trump’s conviction by the Senate — an outcome Cook called “nonexistent” given the Senate’s Republican majority — would give the president a victory ahead of the general election.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “was correct the first time” in her initial reluctance to pursue a formal impeachment inquiry after the Mueller report, Cook said.

“I’m not entirely convinced that she’s changed her mind,” he added, but said she had no choice but to approve the process in the wake of the whistleblower complaint against Trump and calls from House Democrats to initiate an inquiry.

“After all this Ukraine stuff started, there was sort of no point in digging in her heels. It was going to go to another level whether she was on board or not,” Cook said.

Pelosi last week formally launched an impeachment inquiry after details emerged of a July 25 phone call where Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 presidential candidate, and Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

In a brief interview with The Hill, Cook said he is “not convinced that [Pelosi] has had a change of heart” regarding impeachment, but that “her original game plan wasn’t an option” in light of the Ukraine developments.

“I’m not convinced she’s not still slow-walking it,” Cook said.

A recent Politico-Morning Consult poll found that more respondents now support impeaching the president than oppose it, and several other polls have shown increasing support for impeachment.