Friday came with the second day of the public impeachment hearings of President Trump. Democrats and Republicans have been grilling former U.S. diplomats and officials to establish whether the president pressured Ukraine into investigating his political opponent in exchange for military aid. And while Trump has actively worked to discredit the witnesses on Twitter, his campaign is working overtime fundraising on the impeachment hearing.
“Pres. Trump needs YOU to step up during this Impeachment Hearing SCAM!” reads one of his fundraising text messages to donors and supporters.
“He can’t win this IMPEACHMENT FIGHT alone,” writes another.
And if the donations are any indication, the push is working.
According to Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale, the president’s campaign raised $3,144,257 after the impeachment hearings began. The campaign now has a goal to raise $5 million, but as of the time this article was published, it was unclear if that goal was reached.
This isn’t the first time that the Trump campaign has used the impeachment inquiry to push small-dollar donors to give to his campaign.
Immediately after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) formally announced an impeachment inquiry in September, the Trump campaign pulled in a staggering $1 million in just 3 hours.
It’s a fundraising strategy that is working. Currently the president has an eye-popping $83 million in cash on hand, according to his most recent FEC filings. Cash on hand is important because it’s money that can be used on much-needed campaign expenditures like payroll, political advertisements, travel, and more.
In contrast, Democratic frontrunner and former Vice President Joe Biden only has $9 million cash on hand. And Senator Bernie Sanders, who has pulled in the most among all the Democratic candidates, only has $34 million cash on hand.
President Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) raised $125 million in the third quarter, blowing past Democrats’ fundraising totals. According to Trump’s campaign manager, the president has $156 million in cash on hand with nearly $310 million raised so far this year.
Not to be outdone, ActBlue has raised over $7 million since the impeachment hearings began — and counting, according to the donation tally on the ActBlue website.
Kristin Myers is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
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