Trump Not to Run in 2020?

The conservative paper, The Washington Examiner, is reporting that a contributor for conservative Fox News is suggesting that Donald Trump will not run for reelection in 2020. If that had been proposed by Democrats, or even NeverTrump Republicans, it might not be so surprising, but the rumblings are coming from the right.

Specifically, it was Christopher Hahn, of Fox News, quoted in the Washington Examiner.

[Hahn] told the Washington Examiner on Saturday that he believes the “most likely” outcome is that the Senate will advise Trump not to run for reelection based on accusations of quid pro quo. Hahn suggested that in Trump’s absence, the 2020 Republican ticket will be led by either Vice President Mike Pence or former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. . .

Hahn added that the testimony of former national security adviser John Bolton, which is still not a certainty, would be the final nail in the coffin for this administration. . .

Hahn also said he hopes Trump doesn’t face criminal prosecution once he is removed from office, and added that in the event a Democrat wins in 2020, he or she “will have to pardon” the president.

Market Watch has another interesting option. That is, impeach and remove Trump, but then let him run again in 2020, anyway.

But there’s a way to take immediate action over the latest White House controversy and also to allow the will of the people to ultimately call the shots, according to Ohio State law professor Edward Foley:

‘Remove Trump from office, so that he cannot abuse incumbency to subvert the electoral process, but let the American people make the judgment on whether or not he gets a second term.’. . .

“This approach would duly punish Trump for his 2020 election interference — and take such interference off the table — while still deferring to the will of the electorate,” he wrote. “That, in turn, might make the idea of conviction more palatable to Senate Republicans.”

Meanwhile, Deadline quotes Mika Brzezinski as saying Ivanka Trump will run in 2020.

“Ivanka Trump Is going to run for president,” Brzezinski declared during an on-stage conversation with editor David Remnick on opening night of the New Yorker Festival.

Remnick did a double-take, asking them to explain the theory. “He’s got this obsession with positioning her,” Brzezinski said. “You can pull up her Instagram and she’s got these carefully composed sizzle reels, ,,, She’s going to all of the companies–” Scarborough interjected, “Giving speeches in front of the presidential seal.” He added, “When her advisors announced that she was giving up her businesses and they were asked if that meant she could run for office and they wouldn’t answer. They all just laughed.”

Later in the nearly two-hour conversation, Scarborough offered another potential rationale for Donald Trump not running for re-election. “He has early signs of dementia,” he said. “His father had it and now he has it.”

Back to the Washington Examiner, the paper gave full coverage to John Kelly’s comments that he’s sorry he left the White House because a “yes man” will get Trump impeached.

And there was the story about Kellyanne Conway threatening a reporter. The story was so strong that Conway then felt obligated to “blast” the Examiner for even publishing it.

Then, in an opinion piece, the Examiner wrote that Acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney’s comments “confirms that there was a quid-pro-quo,” while other conservative outlets were reinterpreting and/or dismissing Mulvaney’s words.

Another Examiner story goes as far as to say that the Ukraine quid-pro-quo is a “smoking gun,” relating back to the Nixon impeachment action.

The wording is significant.

Then, when it came to Trump’s decision to turn his back on the Kurds, the Examiner called his Syria speech, “a pageant of absurdities.”

With all the stories questioning and doubting Trump, there was total confusion when the Examiner Twitter account announced that Trump was “going to hell.”

the washington examiner had two scotches too many last night pic.twitter.com/TzZOhkJmXL

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) November 5, 2018

However, within a few hours, the Examiner followed up with an explanation.

The Washington Examiner’s Twitter feed was hacked and a tweet was posted that did not come from our staff. We are taking appropriate action and will issue a further statement if necessary.

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) November 5, 2018

Negative comments from the Weekly Standard might have been expected, but the fact that the Washingon Examiner is running more and more negative stories on Trump should be of concern to him.