House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., speaks during his opening statement during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on the constitutional grounds for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

It’s not uncommon for Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to open his mouth and insert his foot and today’s House Judiciary Committee impeachment inquiry hearing was no exception.

As Streiff wrote earlier, Nadler opened today’s hearings with an opening statement in which he outright accused President Trump of putting himself before his country’s interests during the now-infamous July phone call with Ukrainian president Zelensky.

In spite of the fact that most “witnesses” for Democrats are either people who were working off second and third-hand information during their testimonies or who otherwise support Democrats and hate Trump, Nadler, Schiff, and Pelosi believe they’ve laid out a firm, solid case for impeaching the president.

What they’ve done a better job of, in this writer’s humble opinion, is prove the point made often by Republicans about how this is more about relitigating the 2016 elections and trying to make sure Trump has no chance of getting reelected in 2020 to a second term.

In fact, Nadler admitted as much in his opening statement in remarks that haven’t gotten that much attention. Here’s what he said, per the transcript:

“To the members of this Committee, to the members of the House, and to my fellow citizens, I want to be absolutely clear: the integrity of our next election is at stake. Nothing could be more urgent.

The President welcomed foreign interference in our elections in 2016. He demanded it for 2020. Then he got caught.”

None of that is true, no matter how often Nadler and other Democrats say it. The Mueller report found no evidence Trump “welcomed foreign interference in 2016” and not a single witness – not even the transcript itself – shows he “demanded it for 2020.”

But Nadler’s remarks about “election integrity” and the “urgency” needed to act reveals much, and none of it is good for Democrats.

Unless Nadler has evidence that Trump and other Republicans are rigging voting machines or are illegally manipulating the voter rolls, the “integrity” of the coming election is not at stake – at least not in the way he implies it is. It’s an absurd comment for him to make, but what it tells us is that Democrats are very concerned that Trump could win a second term, so they feel they must act now, sooner rather than later, to impeach him.

And even though they know the likelihood of the Senate also impeaching him is slim to none, the idea is to make Trump “damaged goods” to the point voters will be weary of him in 2020 and support the Democratic nominee for president and Democrats down ballot.

This is indeed about election “integrity” but not in the way Nadler meant it. Democrats have worked tirelessly for the last 3 years to undermine confidence in the integrity of our elections by way of making false allegations against Trump of “rigging the system” by way of foreign interference – an allegation that three years later they still can’t prove. If they’re so concerned about election integrity, perhaps a mirror would be in order.

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— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 16+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –