December 27, 2019
On December 18th Donald Trump became only the 3rd president in our nation’s history to be impeached; and the first to be impeached without bipartisan support. The Democratic -controlled House voted to impeach Trump on two articles- abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Every Republican and two Democrats voted against impeachment.
Many on the left have made the claim that there were no Republican defectors because they feared political ramifications. The facts belie this assertion. All 21 Republican House members who are retiring and not running for another office voted “No” on impeachment. Clearly, there would have been no political fall out for these members who are at the end of their political careers, yet they voted against impeaching the president.
Democrats are asserting that a July 25th phone call between President Trump and Ukraine’s President Zelensky, in which Trump requested that Ukraine investigate the possible corruption of then Vice President Joe Biden, and Ukraine’s role in meddling in the 2016 presidential election, has provided evidence for impeachment.
It was first claimed that Trump withheld U.S. military aid to Ukraine in exchange for these investigations, in other words a “quid pro quo”. This allegation morphed into “extortion” and “bribery” when focus groups held by the Democratic National Committee concluded that these allegations were more effective in their pursuit to impeach the president.
It’s interesting that in spite of incessantly declaring that “no one is above the law”, and that Trump was guilty of “bribery” and “extortion”, the impeachment articles include no allegations of crimes.
Every witness who testified at the House impeachment inquiry stated that they did not believe that President Trump was guilty of a crime. Trump’s impeachment’s is the first presidential impeachment without the claim of a committed crime. According to Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar who testified at the impeachment inquiry, when asked if there was evidence of bribery, extortion, obstruction of justice, or abuse of power, he replied “Not on this record.”
Turley added that Democratic lawmakers were doing exactly what they were accusing President Trump of doing. He stated that impeaching the president for obstruction of justice because he turned to the courts over subpoenas of witnesses was an abuse of power by Democrats.
According to Turley, if abuse of power is the new standard for impeachment virtually every president throughout history would have been impeached. He added that Trump’s impeachment will be “the fastest and weakest impeachment in history.”
The claim that impeaching President Trump was a somber occasion and something that Democrats did not want to do is laughable.
Democrats have made it clear that they hated this president before he was even sworn in. Let’s not forget that more than a third of House Democrats boycotted Trump’s inauguration.
Shortly after Trumps election many prominent Democrats even questioned the legitimacy of Trump’s win. On NBC’s Meet the Press in January 2017 Georgia Congressman John Lewis stated “I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president…I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected.”
This past September in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” Hillary Clinton stated, “Trump knows that he’s an illegitimate president…Insomuch as he has a conscience.”
Democrats have been attempting to impeach the President since election night
Two days before Trump was even sworn into office newly-elected Jamie Raskin (D- Maryland), (who presided over the Judiciary Committee’s impeachment proceeding in Chairman Jerry Nadler’s (D-NY) absence), stated that one of his first orders of business would be to impeach the then president-elect Trump.
The first proposed article of impeachment related to Trump, was introduced by Reps Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Al Green (D-TX), only months after his inauguration, in July 2017. In December 2017 when Rep. Al Green brought impeachment up for debate in the House 58 Democrats voted in favor. In January 2018 he brought impeachment up again in the House- this time 66 Democrats voted to hold a debate on impeachment. A third vote took place in July 2019 – 95 Democrats voted in favor of pursuing impeachment. All together 104 of the House Democrats who voted to impeach President Trump last week had already voted for impeachment before the call with Ukraine ever took place.
In a rare moment of honesty House majority leader Nancy Pelosi recently admitted that Democrats have been working on impeaching Trump for the past two and 1/2 years.
If Democrats were acting in good faith in relation to President Trump they would all have apologized for dogging his presidency for three years with false accusations of colluding with Russia to steal the 2016 election. But, apparently Democrats are only sorry that there was zero evidence to be found to indicate that Trump was a Russian agent, so they have turned to accusations that he attempted to use Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election in their impeachment quest.
It is beyond a doubt that impeachment was preordained when Democrats took back the House in January 2019. With the 2020 election looming Democrats know that this is their last chance to destroy Trump’s presidency and harm his chances in 2020.
In 2018, shortly before Democrats took back the House, Jerry Nadler campaigned to be the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee typically plays an important role in the impeachment process. In his efforts to gain the chairmanship, Nadler handed out leaflets to his fellow Democratic members describing himself as “the strongest member to lead a potential impeachment.”
Rep Adam Schiff, who presided over the impeachment proceedings before the intelligence committee has justified impeachment as a way of preventing Trump from being able to “cheat in one more election.” Schiff is not only continuing with the lie that Trump stole the last election, he’s admitting that the upcoming election is why they have moved forward with impeachment.
Just proving that the impeachment of President Trump is purely political Nancy Pelosi is refusing to send the articles of impeachment over to the Senate until her terms for a trial are agreed upon. Pelosi is attempting to use her nonexistent leverage to create a role for herself in the Senate trial. Never mind that Article 1 of the Constitution grants the Senate “the sole power to try all impeachments.” The founders granted no role for the House in the Senate impeachment trial.
So much for their claim that impeaching Trump was an urgent matter of national security. Of course no one believed that anyway.
Apparently Pelosi and her fellow Democrats don’t believe that they sufficiently made their case for impeachment and want to turn the Senate trial into a second impeachment investigation. This is not the purpose of a Senate trial, which is only supposed to try the evidence presented from the House.
Republicans have stood resolute against the political machinations of the House Democrats. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell appears determined to not allow Democrats to run rough-shod over the proceedings in the Senate. McConnell had the perfect retort to Pelosi’s threat of not delivering the impeachment articles – “I’m not sure what leverage there is from refraining from sending us something we don’t want.” Exactly!
Former chief of staff to Mitch McConnell Josh Holmes put it best – “They are seriously entertaining holding a grenade with the pin pulled out rather than facing what happens when they send it over McConnell’s wall..” Yes- this will not end well for Democrats.
