Tim Murtaugh, the communications director of President Trump’s 2020 campaign, is shrugging off the impeachment inquiry against the president led by House Democrats, claiming Trump is “thriving” as a result of the ongoing probe.
“We’re going to do a lot better than just survive it,” Murtaugh said Tuesday in an appearance on Hill.TV. “The campaign and the president is going to be thriving as a result of this.”
Murtaugh said that the Democratic-led probe into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine has fired up the president’s base. He estimated that in the three days following Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) formal announcement of the impeachment inquiry, the campaign raised $15 million in online donations from supporters.
“Every time the media and the Democrats go in a frenzy like this, our campaign raises a ton of money, which means we have greater interaction with voters online, which means our data gets better,” he told Hill.TV.
Murtaugh’s comments as House Democrats set the stage for the public phase of their impeachment inquiry, with three key witnesses slated to appear in public hearings on Wednesday and Friday.
William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, will be the most high-profile witness to publicly testify before lawmakers, but all three witnesses are expected to provide some insight into whether the president used military aid or the promise of a White House meeting as leverage to attempt to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open probes into Trump’s political rivals.
House Democrats have also released transcripts of three witness interviews, including Laura Cooper, a top Defense Department official who oversees Ukraine and two other former aides to Kurt Volker, the former U.S. envoy to Ukraine.
— Tess Bonn
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