Rep. Eric Swalwell says that Trump 'achieved brilliant success' in getting smart people 'to overthink how to handle him'
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Rep. Swalwell said that Trump was great at getting smart people to "overthink how to handle him."
In his new book, Swalwell says that Trump's political acumen allowed him to distract the public.
"The Ukraine shakedown scheme pierced through the fog," the congressman wrote.
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, who served as a House impeachment manager in former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial, said that the former president was masterful in pushing "very smart people" to "overthink how to handle him."
In his new book, "Endgame: Inside the Impeachments of Donald J. Trump," Swalwell details how the Ukraine scandal was a key turning point in Trump's seeming inability to move past most political controversies.
Before Trump was eventually impeached for the first time over his efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate political rival and now-President Joe Biden, Swalwell said that the former president's litany of distractions "avoided letting the public focus on one clear outrage for long."
Related video: U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell says he texted his wife amid the siege
"The Ukraine shakedown scheme pierced through the fog," he wrote. "Finally, we'd cut to Gordian knot of endless overthinking on our side. The overthinkers, trying to jump four steps ahead in a game of chess, worried that impeaching Trump could give him fodder to enflame his base and be a net political win for him."
He emphasized: "All that worry was paralyzing."
Swalwell continued with his analysis of Trump, articulating that the former president's biggest critics often made decisions that helped him.
"Trump had achieved brilliant success in getting even very smart people to overthink how to handle him, to tie themselves up in confusion to the point where they made choices that ultimately benefited him," he wrote. "Think back to the 2016 election. Trump kept insisting the election would be 'rigged.' He said this again and again and again, all the while knowing that the Russians were actually trying to rig the election in his favor."
He added: "President Obama overthought the situation, loath to play into Trump's hand and lend indirect support to his wild claims of election issues. The end result was that the Obama administration never came down hard on the Russians or even alerted the public to what was going on. Trump benefited."
Read the original article on Business Insider
