Maxwell School News and Commentary

"The emotions surrounding this have been extremely high, and most Republicans are on record already showing they wanted to go forward with a vote," on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, says Reeher. "Those things can’t be walked back."

“There have been so many things over the last couple of years that it is just impossible to point to one thing that is going to be a particular problem, or more of a problem than the rest,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

"The visuals are very powerful, the individual stories that you can tell are very powerful," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute.  "All the things that drive attention are there."

Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, says that, compared to other recent presidents, Trump’s pardons appear "more politically oriented. He is focusing on people whose political actions are consistent with his own, in that they have been advancing points of view that he shares, or working toward his goals."

"It has obviously been an enormous distraction for the administration," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. "Whatever the amount of political capital [Trump had], it has been diminished."

"There are a lot of things that make it tough for mayors to emerge as presidential candidates and I think its because of the fact that their records are always going to be impeachable, and the constituencies that they tend to represent have a harder time being seen around the rest of the country," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.