What are Trump's chances in 2020? Pundits say it's hard to predict
Trump will be first president to rerun for office under impeachment
As 2020 begins, the U.S. political landscape is in "uncharted territory," according to CBC's Susan Ormiston.
"We haven't been down this road with a president trying to run again under impeachment," said Ormiston, one of CBC's senior Washington correspondents.
"We haven't seen this level of partisanship in a long, long time," she told The Current's Laura Lynch
U.S. President Donald Trump will become the first impeached president to seek re-election when Americans go to the polls on Nov. 3, 2020.
He was formally charged by the Democrat-controlled House on Dec. 19 on two counts: one of abuse of power for allegedly pressuring the president of Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rivals, and one of obstruction of Congress for stonewalling investigative efforts.
Despite the outcome of the inquiry, the CBC's Paul Hunter said his supporters simply "don't care" that he has been impeached.
"Everybody you talk to who is in so-called 'Trump Nation,' [they say] he's one of them. He's not the swamp. He's not a lying, thieving politician," said Hunter, also a senior Washington correspondent for CBC.
"[They believe] he is a truth teller. He speaks like them. He swears at the podium, like on TV. He breaks the rules. These are all the reasons that they voted for him in 2016, and he continues to do the things that they wanted him to do, to stir the pot in Washington."
The president will now face a Senate trial, where the Republican majority is expected to acquit him, meaning he won't be removed from office.
That leaves the ballot box as the Democrats' only hope of stopping Trump securing a second term, but Hunter said Trump's supporters "are going to vote for him like never before."
Ormiston said Democrats have told her they're "terrified" of the prospect.
"They were worried when Donald Trump was elected president [in 2016]. Now they know what his presidency looks and feels and sounds like," she said.
With a crowded field of Democrats seeking the nomination, she said: "the prism with which they're looking at the nominees is this: can this candidate beat Donald Trump?"
CBC's senior Washington editor Lyndsay Duncombe said the fear among Democrats was already apparent in the 2018 midterm elections, which saw a higher Democrat voter turnout retake control of the House of Congress.
"What matters is: will that be enough, and where will those Democrats turn out?" said Duncombe.
"This election is going to hinge on just a handful of states," she told Lynch.
"Will that desire or that motivation, depending on who the [Democrat] candidate is, translate into mobilization in the states that matter?"
Written by Padraig Moran. Produced by Ben Jamieson.