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On the heels of testimony in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump from a highly decorated commissioned Army officer who arrived on Capitol Hill in his dress blues, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a moment Wednesday to give her GOP colleagues a little patriotic nudge.
“We’ve learned so much about Trump’s months-long campaign to pressure Ukraine because military veterans & his own national security aides stood up to tell the truth,” Pelosi tweeted. “They put their country ahead of everything else. It’s not too late for Republicans in Congress to do the same.”
Pelosi’s tweet cuts both ways. It is absolutely an invitation to Republicans who find their current predicament troubling to ultimately come down on the right side of history. On the other hand, for the vast majority of GOP lawmakers who will continue defending Trump, it’s a dig at their obvious betrayal of country to put their party and their own electoral prospects first.
But more than that, Pelosi’s tweet notably rests on the strength of testimony from an Iraq War veteran and multiple national security experts who have served under presidents of both parties. National security issues are the supposed political bread and butter of Republicans, and Pelosi is clearly reminding them that their defense of Trump is at odds with the people who do this stuff for a living and who have even volunteered to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect this country.
Expect to see more arguments from Democrats waged on the grounds that Donald Trump jeopardized the country’s national security for his own personal political gain. Most House Republicans are likely too dim to give it a second thought, but the notion could actually make GOP senators quite uncomfortable. National security is also an issue that can resonate with Americans under the right circumstances. Even if voters don’t care much about the wonky particulars of foreign policy, they do want to feel safe at night. And as a recent Civiqs poll showed, more than half of voters feel less safe with Trump as president.
So Democrats will likely lean heavily on the message that Trump’s efforts to extort Ukraine “would all undermine U.S. national security,” exactly as Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman stated in his opening testimony.