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| THE LEDE American politics is all impeachment, all the time now, and so I texted this week with Mark Sanford, a Republican who voted to impeach Bill Clinton back in 1998 — and is now running against Donald Trump.
The impeachment stakes: Brace yourself for a lot of, let’s say, fanfiction about Mitt Romney in the coming months. That’s because in any world where Donald Trump is removed, Romney is the one whipping the needed, hard-to-imagine, 20 Republican votes in the Senate. And if you want to get a sense of how Romney might be approaching it, look it his pre-political career, when he built a reputation as a “turnaround artist.” He’s famous for doing it around the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, but more significant in this context is a tale that is less well-known: He saved his company, Bain, from a crisis brought on when somewhat Trumpy senior partners pulled piles of cash out, angry junior partners threatened to quit, and Romney miraculously salvaged the mess.
The political stakes: If you’re paying attention, you might be supporting Elizabeth Warren. That’s the main takeaway from this really striking bit of polling from YouGov for Data for Progress — an incredibly good sign for Warren. READ RECEIPTS Texting with Mark Sanford This week I texted with Mark Sanford, the former member of Congress and South Carolina governor, who became one of Trump’s most vocal Republican critics — and lost his primary in 2018 to an extremely pro-Trump opponent (the seat eventually went to a Democrat). Sanford became a household name in 2009, when, as governor, he disappeared for six days, later admitting he was having an affair and was visiting his girlfriend in Argentina — a mild scandal by today’s standards. But he’s been incredibly consistent about limiting government spending and deficits and has launched a quixotic bid against Trump so he can, he hopes, remind Republicans they used to care about spending.
We texted about his campaign, impeachment, and what he thinks of some of his former congressional colleagues who now work for Trump. ON THE TRAIL WITH BUZZFEED NEWS
Joe Biden said Donald Trump should be impeached, and his sister, Valerie Biden Owens, called Trump “unhinged.”
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