The Democratic presidential debate on Tuesday night will be dominated by two pressing issues: the House investigation into the possible impeachment of President Trump and Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria.
Impeachment and Syria should bring a high degree of unity on stage among the 12 presidential candidates. However, the surface agreement masks convoluted political calculations.
All Democratic candidates, including those who did not qualify for the October debate, support an impeachment inquiry.
Among the latest to support Congress’ removal of the president was former Vice President Joe Biden, the target of Trump’s alleged efforts to do so convince the government of Ukraine to conduct an investigation.
Impeachment is popular among Democrats and increasingly supported by independents. AND A Fox News poll conducted last week showed that a majority of Americans supported Trump’s impeachment and removal.
Two-thirds of those polled by Fox, including 40 percent of Republicans, agreed that Trump is inappropriate to ask foreign governments to investigate allegations against political rivals.
Both Republicans and Democrats are outraged by this decision the president’s decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria, enabling Turkey to attack Kurdish forces on its border.
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Everyone from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass for Trump enthusiasts Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. we accused Trump of abandoning the Kurds, who were our allies in the war against ISIS.
Not only that, but also Trump stunning and impulsive This move could lead to the resurgence of ISIS and strengthen its role Iran and Russia in the region.
We should hear a chorus of condemnations of Trump on the Democratic debate stage, but the real intrigue will be what the candidates say to Biden and how the vice president responds.
You would think that presidential contenders would side with Biden, who shares with Hillary Clinton the honor of being targeted Trump’s request for foreign aid. Every candidate knows they could be the next victim.
Moreover, it is in the interest of the Democratic Party that Biden remains the leading candidate for the presidential nomination at least until the House approves articles of impeachment against the president. Biden’s vitality increases the seriousness of Trump’s alleged transgressions.
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Ironically, Trump’s attacks on Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company when his father was vice president, reinforce the former Veep’s claim that he is the Democrat Trump fears most.
This presents Biden’s rivals with a dilemma. If Trump wants to eliminate Biden from the race, he won’t want to do Biden’s soiled work by attacking the vice president.
But if they give Biden a pass this time, his campaign, which will has received dwindling support from donorscan regain momentum.
Although Biden’s performance in the earlier debates was he wasn’t a starto put it mildly, the sudden emphasis on foreign policy issues, in which he has the most experience of all presidential candidates, should facilitate him.
At the same time, Democratic candidates lagging far behind in polls and fundraising will be tempted to make headlines by questioning how the vice president could allow apparent family conflicts of interest in Ukraine and elsewhere.
To be sure, there are risks in attacking Uncle Joe – just ask Julian Castro, former HUD secretary who raised the issue of Biden’s age during the last Democratic debate.
And the vice president is perfectly capable of undermining his own candidacy. Indeed, observers are wondering why Biden did not take full advantage of the political benefits scandal in Ukraine, given the facts regarding his involvement in efforts to remove a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor on his side.
The way out of this dilemma for Democratic candidates may be to target not Biden, but rather Warren recent favorite in many polls, which is persistent more control.
Regardless, events related to impeachment and Syria will likely overshadow anything that takes place during the debate.
The military situation in Syria is is changing rapidlyadding a threat ethnic cleansing to an already unmanageable humanitarian crisis.
WITH more whistleblowers AND witnesses of facts willing to testify to House committees investigating Trump, the ever-deepening Ukraine scandal could bring down not only the president but also Penny and/or members of Trump’s cabinet.
There’s also the circus surrounding Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, who conducted own foreign policy in Ukraine with the facilitate of colleagues arrested when they tried to leave the country.
Given the incompetence and corruption on display, we may yet see a recent set of presidential debates – among Republicans.
Capital-Star opinion contributor Fletcher McClellan is a professor of political science at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. His works are published every two weeks. Follow him on Twitter at @McleleF.
