Vice President Joe Biden takes the stage at the
Democratic National Convention on July 27, 2016, in Philadelphia. (AP
Photo/John Locher)
The fallout from the Democrats' impeachment of Trump
keeps getting worse for Democrats. Not only do a plurality now oppose
impeachment and removal, but Trump is now leading all of his likely Democrat
rivals for the White House in head-to-head match-ups, according to a new USA Today/Suffolk University Poll.
According to the recent national survey, President Trump
is "defeating former Vice President Joe Biden by 3 percentage points,
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by 5 points, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth
Warren by 8 points." He also bests Pete Buttigieg by 10 points, and
Michael Bloomberg by 9 points.
While obviously polls this far out from the election are
hardly reliable indicators, several factors make it clear that Trump is in a
very strong position. At this time in the 2012 election cycle, Obama was
consistently beating Romney in national polls. Given Trump's already
overwhelmingly negative media coverage, the partisan impeachment hearings of
the Democrats were the best chance to knock Trump's numbers down, but instead
of all his likely rivals crushing him in national polls, he's now beating
them. What does that tell you?
Trump spent most of the 2016 election underwater in terms
of national polling—so much so that pundits were almost universally predicting
Hillary's coronation.
With the exception of an economic collapse, the height of
an impeachment inquiry should be the worst possible thing for Trump. He's had
Democrats being given hours and hours of air time claiming him to be a
criminal. Yet, here we are — support for impeachment is underwater, and he's
outpolling his likely rivals. Many underestimated him in 2016—including me—who
should be looking at the numbers today and realizing that save for an economic
downturn, Donald Trump will be extremely difficult to beat in 2020,
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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack
Obama's Legacy and the
bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
