Ann Coulter: If Democrats Win the House, Trump Will Be Impeached
*By Max Godnick*
One of the most controversial, conservative voices in politics thinks President Trump should be worried about November.
"If Democrats win the House of Representatives by one vote, yes he will be impeached," Ann Coulter said Monday during an interview with Cheddar's Baker Machado.
The sometimes-incendiary pundit and bestselling author is back with her 13th book, "Resistance Is Futile!: How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind." It's the latest project from a voice whose Twitter activity rivals only that of the [@RealDonaldTrump](http://www.twitter.com/realdonaldtrump).
Coulter said she doesn't think that Trump committed any high crimes, misdemeanors, or constitutional prerequisites for impeachment ー but "it doesn't matter."
Of course, being impeached by the House is one thing; being convicted in the Senate is another. And as long as the GOP holds the Senate, such a conviction is unlikely, meaning Trump stays in office. (Bill Clinton can testify to that.)
While she may offer a bleak 2018 prognosis for Republicans, her outlook for 2020 is sunnier. Coulter said that among the contenders for president, only two Democrats have a chance, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Alec Baldwin, and she doubts they'll actually run.
"I don't think either of them could be nominated by the current Democratic party," she said. "Why? Because they've gone insane."
Yet Coulter is saving her formal endorsement of Trump's reelection bid for later, because she doesn't want him to "get cocky." If the president is hoping to secure Coulter's support no questions asked, all he'll have to do is build a wall along the southern border, she said.
Coulter isn't fazed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation that, just last week, resulted in a guilty plea from the president's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, and a guilty verdict for his ex-campaign chair Paul Manafort.
"Campaign finance reform? Come on," she said. "Two years, and that's what you come up with?"
But Coulter does have plenty of political advice for both sides of the aisle. In her view, Trump's critics are going about it all wrong. Instead of lingering on the alleged collusion with Russia in 2016, she suggested liberals should appeal more directly to the blue-collar voters who secured the presidency for Trump.
As for Trump himself, Coulter said the president could have successfully changed the tenor of American politics had he delivered a "somber, serious address" from the Oval Office after nabbing the presidency. Such a speech, she said, could have wiped the American slate clean of the election's mudslinging.
But the polarization continues, most recently with Trump's initially [terse remarks](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1033515425336885248) on Twitter after the passing of Sen. John McCain. The Washington Post reported Monday that the White House [drafted a statement](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-rejected-plans-for-a-white-house-statement-praising-mccain/2018/08/26/0d0478e4-a967-11e8-8f4b-aee063e14538_story.html) celebrating McCain's contributions to politics and even called him a "hero." But Trump reportedly nixed it. The White House's flags were lowered to half mast before returning to their original state just one day later, while the Capitol Building's remained lowered.
After facing significant criticism, Trump issued a [longer statement](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/us/politics/flag-half-staff-mccain-trump.html) Monday afternoon, ordering the White House's flag back to half-staff. In the statement, the president said, “Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country.”
Coulter, who admitted she was "very much not a fan" of McCain, was not much bothered by the snub.
"I think Trump can't win. No matter what he does, it's the wrong thing," she said. "I think if he had done more, he would have been attacked for it being utterly insincere."
"Resistance Is Futile!: How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind" is available in stores now.
As the U.S. comes up on the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection.,A.C. Thompson, investigative reporter at ProPublica, joined Cheddar's Baker Machado to discuss updates to American Insurrection by FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program. The documentary investigates the attack on the Capitol touched off by the lie that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump but with new information gleaned since the event including interviews with lawmakers and law enforcement and the evolution of groups like the Boogaloo Boys and the Proud Boys behind the attack. "In some ways those groups that were kind of the vanguard of January 6 are maybe no longer relevant because their message is everywhere," he said.
A new report from ProPublica and the Washington Post found that Facebook Groups played a major role in the spread of misinformation linked to the January 6 insurrection with more than 650,000 posts claiming that Joe Biden's election victory was illegitimate.
Millions of Americans with young children have relied on the child tax credit since the federal government began issuing checks in July 2021. The last round of payments was sent out just before the Christmas holiday — at the same time as the omicron variant surged. Leah Hamilton, associate professor of social work at Appalachian State University, joined Cheddar to discuss what the end to the tax credit means as the U.S. sees the end of many relief programs and its highest number of COVID cases since the start of the pandemic. "It'll become harder for families to meet their basic needs, increasing national childhood poverty rates and the proportion of families who have difficulty putting food on the table, maintaining stable housing, and paying their bills," Hamilton said. She also pointed to research that the credit as a long-term investment in children offsets claims that it contributes to macroeconomic impacts like inflation.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the week-end, just days after he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The call comes as Washington prepares to meet with Moscow on January 10, as tensions mount over Russia's military build up near its border with Ukraine. Cheddar News speaks with Mustafa Tameez, a former advisor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, about the issue.
Several Silicon Valley insiders are being accused of contorting a 1990s-era tax break to avoid taxes on millions of dollars of investment profits. The tax break is known as the qualified small business stock exemption, and it allows early investors in certain companies to avoid half of the taxes on up to $10 million in capital gains. A piece recently published in the New York Times says venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz replicated the tax exemption by giving shares of companies to friends and family, who would otherwise face a 23.8% capital gains bill. The CEO of Roblox is also accused of replicating the tax break for his family members at least 12 times. Although the loophole known as 'stacking' is considered to be legal, the Times piece implies that the exemption has been manipulated for the ultra-wealthy to become more wealthy. Greycroft co-founder and Chairman Emeritus Alan Patricof joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Chris Sommerfeldt, City Hall reporter for the New York Daily News, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses both the wins and losses of Bill de Blasio's eight years as New York City Mayor.
The push to regulate the gig worker economy is gaining steam as the share of workers who participate in freelancing through businesses like Uber and Lyft have also exponentially grown during the pandemic. Employment attorney Mark Kluger, founding partner at Kluger Healey, LLC, joined Cheddar to break down how the battle to reclassify gig workers will continue in the new year, and why the issue continues to generate conflict. "More and more workers are using gig work as their primary source of income and as a result of that they are not like employees in the sense that they don't have benefits like health insurance," Kluger noted.
