Trump’s Strategy Of Stonewalling House Democrats is Backfiring

By blanket refusing to comply with Congress, Trump is setting himself up for defeat in the courts.

Trump is hurting his own defense with a blanket undermining of congressional oversight

MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner explained, “He is not a tactical thinker. He is hurting his own cause. Here is why. If he were to say, listen, I am now getting inundated with subpoenas and myself and my lawyers will take a look at these subpoenas one at a time and try to determine whether there’s a privilege we can assert. They’re not doing that. He said basically, constitutional oversight be darned. I’m not complying with any subpoenas, even those that I haven’t seen yet. What that is the president announcing he is basically disregarding the Congress’ authority and responsibility to perform oversight, checks and balances. It would be no different than if Congress said, you know what? We’re going to pass legislation, Mr. President, and we’re not going to send it to you for we’re going to declare it’s the law. That would be congress acting unconstitutionally. That’s what the president is doing.”

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Trump is hurting himself on multiple fronts

As Kirschner explained, Trump is sealing his fate legally. Politically, Trump has damaged himself by refusing to comply. Trump’s stonewalling keeps these investigations at the top of the news headlines and makes the president look guilty. Republicans can repeat their mantra of no collusion, no obstruction daily, but if this is the case why is there no compliance with subpoenas and document requests?

It is not a difficult question to answer. The White House and congressional Republicans don’t want Democrats to have the evidence.

Trump is in survival mode. He is acting like a president who is living on borrowed time.

The just say no to everything Democrats ask for strategy has backfired, and beginning this week, the damage will start to mount for the White House and Trump.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association