Look at the Daily Bits: Redundant comments on impeachment, Something about refugees
Len’s Letter #17 Impeachment
(This Letter was prepared a few days before Nancy Pelosi’s announcement of an impeachment process. Revisions in the light of her announcement are in blue.)
Donald Trump: Speaking about Xi Jinping, Secretary General of the Communist Party. “He’s now president for life. No, he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.”
Donald Trump: About the Mueller investigation and the Justice Department’s criticism of James Comey. Trump suggested he should extend his term beyond four years. The time dealing with the Special Counsel report was stolen. Robert Mueller’s investigations and James Comey’s accusations took time from his presidency. He should get that time back.
A year and a half ago, Brian Klass, writing for the Washington Post wrote: “Over and over again Trump has lavished praise on strongmen around the world: Putin, Erdogan, Sisi, Duterte. He’s spoken again and again about how he admires them.” If he could be them, Trump would.
President for life? If he could, Trump would. Extend his term to make up for stolen time. If he could, Trump would.
But he is joking, isn’t he? Bill Kass again: potential autocrats and aspiring despots use “jokes” as trial balloons to gauge public reaction to potential abuses of power. Trump could be joking. Or not.
Trump can’t keep his mouth shut. He can’t help himself. He tips his hand. He speaks openly. He gets away with it. We are used to looking around corners for evidence of bad behavior. We can’t quite deal with open statements on television about why he fired Comey or what the Russians should do about Hillary’s emails. Or the transcript of what he said to Zelensky or his thoughts about executing spies and traitors.
We need to initiate an impeachment process, which Nancy Pelosi has now committed us to. An investigation will not find systematic planning to declare Trump President for Life or even plans to postpone the 2020 election or to extend Trump’s term to 2022. Systematic planning is not Trump’s way.
There are many reasons to consider impeachment without evidence of plans to illegally extend Trump’s presidency. Begin with Mueller’s report:
- Cooperation with Russian interference with the 2016 election (Whose interest was Trump serving, the USA or his own election?)
- public request to Russia to investigate Hillary Clinton’s emails during the campaign
- members of the Trump campaign linking to and/or reposting Russian material
- Obstruction of Justice (summary taken from Quinta Jurecic’s April 21, 2019 article in Lawfare, for which she is the Managing Editor) (Whose interest was Trump serving, the USA or his own position as President)
- Efforts to block the Michael Flynn investigation
- Efforts to ensure Comey’s loyalty
- Firing Comey
- Efforts to Fire Mueller
- Efforts to limit Mueller’s work
- Efforts to prevent disclosure of the Trump Tower meeting
- Efforts to have Sessions take over the investigation
- Order to McGahn to deny the attempt to fire Mueller
- Trump’s further conduct toward Flynn and others to prevent truthful testimony
- Efforts to block Manafort’s cooperation with prosecutors
- Efforts to influence the jury in Manafort’s trial
- Conduct toward Stone and the possibility of his trial
- Efforts to influence Michael Cohen’s testimony
- Efforts to limit Michael Cohen’s cooperation
- Corruption and the emoluments clause (Whose interest is Trump serving, the USA or his own finances?)
- Foreigners and domestic supplicants using the Trump Hotels and Resorts – From DC to Scotland
- Contempt of Congress (Whose interest is Trump serving, the prerogatives of the US executive or his own protection)
- Trump will not produce witnesses or documents.
- When witnesses do show up, they behave with contempt for Congress as Corey Lewandowski did.
There are grounds for starting impeachment proceedings. I would be convinced if I were a Member of Congress.
If I were a committee chair, investigating Trump, would I opt for a brand new Select Committee. These are powerful people investigating Trump: Adam Schiff’s (CA) Intelligence Committee, Maxine Waters’ (CA) Financial Services Committee, Richard Neal’s (MA) Ways and Means Committee, Jerold Nadler’s (NY) Judiciary Committee, Elijah Cumming’s (MD) Oversight Committee.
Nancy Pelosi could ease into the impeachment process by appointing a coordinator of those committee’s investigations for the purpose of impeachment. There is a risk. The Committee chairs may not be up to the work. To succeed, they ought to turn the interrogation process over to the lawyers. The lawyers are trained to do the work and do not have a public to perform in front of. Jerold Nadler, for instance, looked like a cross between a teacher who could not manage a classroom and a bloviating politician while leading the interrogation of Corey Lewandowski.
Nancy Pelosi has chosen to work with the existing committees. She wlll coordinate them herself. She will need to be demanding of her Chairs. She may be leaning toward relying primarily on Adam Schiff.
Nancy Pelosi’s greatest concern had been uncertainty that she would have a majority in favor of impeachment. Members of Congress from purple districts, especially those elected for the first time in 2018 after flipping Republican seats, are cautious about the impact of impeachment on their reelection.
Nancy Pelosi’s nightmare, and ours, would be impeachment proceedings that are voted down in the House of Representatives. Does Nancy Pelosi have a target number of her Members who urge impeachment proceedings? Democrats have 235 Members of Congress. The most recent count I could find before the whistleblower controversy and the impeachment process announcement was 146 Members of Congress favoring impeachment as of September 3. Only 7 of the 40 who flipped Republic seats in 2018 have announced they favored impeachment. Democrats in Congress including
She has had good reasons to be slow. She did not want to endanger the House majority. She wants to expand it. She wants a Democratic Senate to work with. A Democratic President to work with.. She is thinking about 2020. If an impeachment proceeding would jeopardize the reelection of the freshmen, she is will remain opposed to impeachment.
Events have made a difference. The whistleblower complaint against Trump has proved to be that kind of event. It is the first Trump scandal that lasts several news cycles with intensity. It is a complaint about an egregious Trump abuse of power to protect his reelection. Another count to be added in the impeachment list:
- Proposing a deal to the new Ukrainian President. Investigate Joe Biden’s son or we will hold onto millions in military aid. (Whose interest is Trump concerned with, the USA or his reelection?)
If I were a member of Congress, I would be convinced. I would be number 147 on the list. If I were the Speaker of the House, I would be working with Members. She needs to be confident of an eventual majority. She now has a majority in the House supporting an impeachment process. She needs to be confident the Committee Chairs will put attorneys in charge of interrogation and will declare witnesses in contempt when they are in contempt.
That’s not all. She needs to be organized sufficiently so that the Democrats can walk and chew gum at the same time. They need to pass legislation. If some of the legislation, gun safety for instance, is bipartisan and can pass the Senate – Amazing. Legislation the Senate won’t consider is also OK. That’s a signal for what a Democratic House and Senate will pass for a Democratic President to sign in 2020 and beyond.
As a citizen. As a Democrat. As someone who wants Donald Trump out of the White House, I wanted Nancy Pelosi to support impeachment when she was confident she would get 218 or more votes for impeachment and will be able to pass other legislation besides. The intensity of an overwhelming number of the members of her caucus led her to move forward and led to a majority supporting the inquiry.
I have another request of Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats, In addition to managing this process effectively and controlling witness behavior, treat the process with the solemnity it deserves. There is nothing about impeaching a President which should be fun. Successful impeachment would not be a triumph. It would be an occasion for sadness. Success at the next stage, no matter how unlikely, is possible. Conviction would be an occasion for even greater sadness. We proceed toward removing a President of the United States out of necessity, not out of desire.
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