DORAL, Fla. About half the country wants the impeached president removed from office, but Donald Trump s Republican Party on Friday professed to see only sunny skies ahead.

There is a strong and growing outrage among the general public, Morton Blackwell, a longtime Republican National Committee member from Virginia, said at the groups winter meeting. He said the impeachment would boomerang against Democrats , just it did with Republicans who impeached President Bill Clinton in 1999. Clinton got more popular. I think they made a mistake.

Jim Dicke, an RNC member from Ohio, said he thought public opinion was turning against Democrats, putting Republicans in a good position to hold the White House and Senate and win back the House.

My gut tells me it will help us, he said. Youre not attending a doom-and-gloom RNC meeting.