Shannon Bream: Democrats risk making Trump an 'empathetic figure' with post-presidency impeachment

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Bream: Dems don't think Trump will be convicted in 'wildest expectations'

'Fox News @ Night' host offers legal analysis of the Senate impeachment trial on 'Fox News Primetime'

Democrats risk unintentionally making former President Donald Trump into an "empathetic figure" during the Senate impeachment trial, "Fox News @ Night" host Shannon Bream said Wednesday, adding that Democrats' attempts to blame Trump and his supporters for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot might further "coalesce" his base.

At least 17 Republicans would need to vote to convict Trump in order to reach the two-thirds vote threshold, assuming all Democrats held the party line, but Bream said it's unlikely the trial will yield a conviction at all.

"They don't think -- the Democrats -- in their wildest expectations that they're going to persuade 17 Republican senators," Bream told "Fox News Primetime" host Mark Steyn. "So you have to ask yourself, then, what is the actual ultimate goal of this proceeding?

"Some on the Democrat side will say, 'Listen, this will drive a wedge even further in the GOP Party. People have to decide if they’re with the Trump wing ... ' but there are others out there who would think this is going to coalesce them and bring them together in some ways," she added.

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Bream said the suggestion among Democratic lawmakers "that millions, potentially tens of millions of Trump voters were somehow okay with this behavior and the criminal things that actually happened at the Capitol," could backfire and "make President Trump even more of an empathetic figure to some of those people who will feel like he is being attacked, and that by proxy, somehow their vote is being attacked.  

"The Democrats do risk communicating that to the millions of people who feel like they are being lumped in" with the Capitol rioters, she concluded