It’s Time For House Democrats To Impeach President Trump
President Donald Trump (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
While I believe the precedent that a sitting president cannot be indicted is bad law, I understand Special Counsel Robert Mueller not wanting to press the issue. That means impeachment is the only option, and it’s one Congress must take. Not doing so is an abdication of their constitutional duties.
Mueller’s redacted report clearly outlines the conduct of a lawless president who solicited and was receptive to Russia’s election help, lied about it, and subsequently waged a corrupt effort to obstruct the investigation into that conduct. Although Mueller believed he couldn’t charge a criminal conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government, the Special Counsel outlined over 100 pages of collusion evidence. And when it comes to obstruction, Mueller laid out compelling evidence and left it up to Congress to make the next move.
It doesn’t matter if the impeachment proceedings are successful; Republicans are sycophants, so it likely won’t be. It’s about precedent which, as I just noted, is a strong thing. Every future POTUS must know if they engage in this behavior, there will be a reaction from their checks and balances. It will also double as a mechanism through which to lay out all of the facts for the American people with the spectacle of impeachment hearings ahead of 2020.
It also doesn’t have to be politically ruinous for Democrats. Yes, President Bill Clinton’s approval ratings improved during and after his impeachment proceedings, but that was because the American people largely recognized it was nothing more than sour Republicans trying to undermine a popular and effective president.
Because of Clinton’s successes and popularity, he could withstand impeachment proceedings. Trump, on the other hand, has been an absolute trainwreck since day one, has proved himself unfit in every way imaginable, and is the least popular president in the nearly 75-year history of polling.
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Trump has none of the things going for him that Clinton had. And we all remember how badly impeachment proceedings hurt Republicans’ chances to take the WH in 2000, which is why we had 8 years of President Gore.
See what I’m saying here?
While Clinton is the go-to because he’s the most recent president to be impeached, President Nixon is by far the better apples-to-apples comparison. Nixon swore he wasn’t going anywhere and did nothing wrong. Even after much of the Watergate scandal was uncovered and publicly known, he showed as much hubris as Trump despite Watergate not adding up to one-quarter of what Trump has done, and the threat of impeachment alone was enough to get him to take the first helicopter out of DC.
Would Trump be that smart? Doubtful, but we should find out.
If Democrats really, truly believe impeachment is a waste of time because Republicans won’t do what’s right, why are they wasting time passing anything out of the House? Why tackle gun control or healthcare or votings rights if Senate Republicans won’t take up the cause? It’s a cop-out and we can’t allow it.
Trump has done at least a dozen things that warrant impeachment, from his authoritarian abuses of power to his attempts to violate immigration law to committing campaign finance felonies with his hush money payments. To hell with the politics of it, this is about warning future presidents, protecting the Republic, and maintaining checks and balances.
If this can’t get a president impeached, what can?
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