Washington Free Beacon founding editor Matthew Continetti said congressional Republicans' rising approval rating is a result of impeachment backfiring on Democrats.
"I think it's good news in the sense that it's another example of impeachment backlash," Continetti said Tuesday on Newsmax's Spicer and Co. "Not only did impeachment benefit the president's approval rating, it clearly seems to have improved the approval rating of Republicans in Congress. That can only be a good thing in the months ahead."
Anchor Sean Spicer asked if the rising approval rating was a result of the Republicans being the minority party in the House. Continetti pointed out that the last time the Republicans had a higher approval rating than the Democrats, they were in the majority in 2005.
Gallup's poll found that Utah senator Mitt Romney is the only Republican with a higher approval rating among Democrats than among Republicans, which Continetti argued won't help him in his conservative home state. Romney was the only Republican senator to break ranks and vote for conviction on one of the articles of impeachment.
"It's probably not good for [Romney] in terms of the internal politics in Utah. Of course, he has another four years left in his term, so there's plenty of time for him to recover," Continetti said. "It proves one thing about Washington: If you want to be loved, go after Donald Trump. That's all it takes in this town now."
Forty percent of Gallup's respondents approved of the performance of congressional Republicans, while 35 percent approved of congressional Democrats. The poll noted that the Republican approval rating had increased by 6 points since last October, before the impeachment process began.