Tony Perkins is President of Family Research Council. This article appeared in Life News on February 12, 2018.
Barely a day goes by that Democrats don’t demand President Trump’s resignation — or, if they’re feeling particularly feisty, impeachment. It’s such a routine cry of the Left that some Americans are probably tempted to yawn their way through the threats. But, as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) tried to warn conservatives yesterday, there’s nothing empty about them.
Gillibrand, who prided herself on taking down fellow Democrat Al Franken, thinks it’s time to do the same to Donald Trump. Asked about the 10-year-old sexual allegations about the president, Gillibrand insisted, “I think he should resign, and if he’s unwilling to do that – which is what I assume – then Congress should hold him accountable. We’re obligated,” she pressed, “to have hearings.” Host Sharyn Alfonsi was surprisingly candid about the senator’s double standard, pointing out that the senator’s critics will wonder why she didn’t demand the same reckoning for the Clintons. “[They’ll] say, ‘What’s going on here? You know, she took Senator Clinton’s seat. She campaigned with Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. And now all of a sudden she’s saying he should have resigned.'” Gillibrand stumbled, ” ‘Cause I wasn’t –” “Why now?” Alfonsi pushed. “I wasn’t focused on it in the way I am today,” Gillibrand tried to explain. “I didn’t have that lens.”
Alfonsi let that go but reminded Gillibrand, “The accusations aren’t new against [President Trump]. The voters saw the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape and voted for him anyway. So why now?” “Something changed,” was all she could come up with. Something — like the latest polling? For the first time in months, the president’s approval ratings are climbing, and there’s nothing Democrats would like more than to distract Americans from his successes. (And based on this report, there are plenty of them.) “If there’s one thing better than driving a president of the opposing party out of office,” HotAir points out, “it’s clogging up the news cycle all through a midterm election cycle with hearings about his alleged bad behavior.”
Contrary to popular belief, this isn’t political theater. The Left is laying the groundwork for an all-out assault on the White House if they retake the House or Senate in November. They know as well as we do that losing either chamber would make it impossible for the president to continue his conservative agenda. But, more than that, they know they have a real shot at significantly wounding him politically — if not impeaching him altogether. In other words, this election isn’t about Congress. It’s about Donald Trump and whether he spends the next two years too bogged down by investigations to continue the job voters elected him to do of paving the way for America to be a great nation again.
I know a lot of conservatives are fed up with Congress and wish Republicans were half as committed to their agendas as some liberals seem to be. Me too.
But that’s what liberals are counting on. They’re hoping that you’re so disillusioned with GOP leaders that you’ll tune out and disengage when evangelicals can least afford to. Let’s be honest: if conservatives disconnect this November, they’ll be guaranteeing that every promise left on the table — defunding Planned Parenthood, overturning Obamacare, confirming conservative judges, protecting conscience rights, limiting abortion to 20 weeks — dies.