Local political expert weighs in on impeachment inquiry; Buttigieg campaign

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind.—Local political expert Jack Colwell was live in ABC57’s studio on Friday morning to discuss topics including the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign efforts.

On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House was moving forward with the drafting of articles of impeachment against Trump.

“I think there are two things that are almost certain. One is that the House will vote to impeach the president then the Senate will not vote to convict him of the articles of impeachment. The political lines are drawn and they’re not really wavering at all,” Colwell said.

Democrats opened the impeachment inquiry two months ago.

In her Thursday address, Pelosi alleged that Trump abused the powers of his office for his own political gain.

On Thursday, Trump in a tweet, said “if you [Democrats] are going to impeach me, do it now, fast, so we can have a fair trial in the Senate and so that our Country can get back to business.”

Colwell said that he thinks the House will move quickly.

“I don’t think they can wait. They want to get this done and not have the impeachment as the sole focus of Congress going into the presidential primaries coming up or the Iowa caucus. They want to have the vote completed,” Colwell said.

On the other side of party lines, Democratic presidential hopefuls are still vying for the nomination.

Michael Bloomberg entered the race in its now late stages, and Colwell thinks he may be able to affect the course of the race.

“Basically, he’s going to try to buy the nomination and he’s got enough money where perhaps he could. His whole game plan is to wait until Super Tuesday when there will be primaries all around the country. He can go big on television in all of those states. Nobody else can do that,” Colwell said.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has brought his struggle to gain black support back home.

On Wednesday, African-American city leaders gathered at the Charles Martin Youth Center to show support for Buttigieg, but were interrupted by protestors.

“If he can’t get more of the black vote, he has no chance to be the nominee. He’s certainly not a favorite to get the nomination anyways,” Colwell said, adding that Buttigieg might, however, win in Iowa.