Politics

Ari Fleischer: Democrats Are Impeaching Trump ‘For Charlottesville And Getting Elected’

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Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Ari Fleischer claimed Wednesday that Democrats were impeaching President Donald Trump for several reasons — none related to the July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The former White House press secretary appeared with Fox News hosts Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith on “America’s Newsroom” to discuss the most recent developments in the impeachment inquiry being conducted by House Democrats. (RELATED: Ari Fleischer: ‘Hillary Clinton And James Comey Deserve Each Other’)

WATCH:

Fleischer recapped the impeachment proceedings thus far, explaining that he didn’t believe the Democrats were moving forward based on the Zelensky phone call at all.

“My effort to simplify it is this. Did the president commit a crime?” Fleischer began. “The call was inappropriate and wrong. You don’t ask a foreign nation to investigate political foes. He shouldn’t have done it. But it is not an impeachable offense. That’s the case I would make.”

But, Fleischer continued, Democrats were charging ahead anyway because they had already predetermined their course of action. “What the Democrats have done is they’re impeaching him for Charlottesville and getting elected and for being Donald Trump. It has less to do with the call and more to do with that they can’t stand him. That is not grounds for impeachment,” he said.

The natural end result of that plan, Fleischer noted, was a colossal waste of time. “What we’ll end up with, the House will impeach him, the Senate won’t convict him and we will have wasted the American people’s time,” he concluded.

Hemmer then suggested that, given the president’s popularity with his base, he wouldn’t be surprised to see Trump hold a major rally immediately following a full House vote on impeachment.

“He probably would and it would be smart,” Fleischer responded. “The fascination of the Trump era … We’ve entered into base politics. That’s what impeachment is about. The call has less to do with anything said to Zelensky and everything to do with the fact from collusion to obstruction to Zelensky the Democrats are looking for the hook. This is their latest hook. They can’t legislate, they can’t govern. This is what they do.”