Impeachment could be a dangerous political strategy for Democrats: Varney

FBN's Stuart Varney on Democrats efforts to use the threat of impeachment as leverage on various issues.

Let’s think this through: Impeachment – that could be a dangerous political strategy for Democrats.

That’s why they are trying to tone down the impeachment talk. But without using the word, they are using the threat of impeachment as leverage on other issues.

For example, Democratic Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, cancelled meetings with Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the president's Supreme Court nominee. Markey says the judge is now an "illegitimate" nominee, because of the Cohen revelations. In other words, anything this president is associated with is out of bounds.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, goes further. He says it is "unseemly" for this president to be picking Supreme Court justices. The senator is taking a high moral tone here. And he thinks there's a conflict when a president picks a Supreme Court justice who may be "a juror in a case involving the president himself." This is a reference to an impeachment trial. Without using the word, Schumer is using leverage to oppose all things Trump, including any Supreme Court pick.

This is modern politics. Send in the lawyers, use words like "crime," "lies," "pay-offs," and imply that impeachment is coming, so any Trump position or policy is illegitimate. This is how you ignore the president's record of success and dismiss his presidency. This is how the Democrats intend to reverse the results of the 2016 election.

But using the threat of impeachment as political leverage is dangerous. A majority of voters want Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. They will not be pleased if he's kept off because it’s Trump who nominated him.

And if push comes to shove, will voters accept the impeachment of a president for allegedly paying off two women? Bill Clinton arguably did far worse, and he survived. It was the Republicans who paid the price when they went through with the impeachment charge.

One last point: The president told Fox News, if he were impeached, the market would crash.