Trump is backing them into a corner
If they’re just going to keep ignoring subpoenas…
The Washington Post’s Rachael Bade and Mike DeBonis report that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) argued to Pelosi Monday night that Congress should open an impeachment inquiry into Trump.
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And it’s not just Nadler coming around to the idea that Congress may have no choice but to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump. On Monday, five members of Pelosi’s leadership team also urged her to consider impeachment proceedings.
There are pragmatic reasons for doing so, in addition to or instead of the obvious He’s A Criminal one.
Instead, these influential lawmakers see two more practical reasons to open impeachment inquiries: 1) saying the “i” word would help them make their case to the courts to get key information in their investigations, and 2) Trump is backing them into a corner by blocking all those investigations.
To break those down a bit:
Trump is blocking every investigation of significance that Congress has into him and his administration. (Twenty so far, a Washington Post analysis finds.) Congress is going to the courts — already with some success — to get what they want. But they are at risk of losing some key court fights such as the one to get the unredacted Mueller report. Congress could strengthen its hand by starting impeachment proceedings. Grand jury information, which makes up much of the redactions in the report, is typically kept secret except for judicial proceedings. Impeachment is a trial, so saying the “i” word would turn Congress into a judiciary body (instead of a legislative one) and thus strengthen its case for why it needs to see the underlying grand jury testimony that makes up the Mueller report.
Which, I guess, would at least mean Trump’s people would have to stop repeating “no legitimate legislative purpose” until we all scream.
Some of these Democrats on the Judiciary Committee argue that if Congress wants to assert its constitutionally mandated oversight authority over this president — and future presidents —- it has no choice but to launch an impeachment inquiry. On Tuesday, former White House counsel Donald McGahn ignored a subpoena and didn’t show up to a House hearing. He’s a key witness in the Mueller report about Trump’s attempts to fire the special counsel and then lie about it. Rep Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), a Judiciary Committee member who agrees with those who made their case to Pelosi, told The Post Monday: “If the answer is, ‘No, you can’t talk to anyone, you can’t have anything, we’re simply not going to cooperate,’ then at that point the only avenue that we have left is the constitutional means to enforce the separation of powers, which is a serious discussion of impeachment.”
Which doesn’t mean they actually want to impeach him, which many of them don’t, because they fear the political blowback.
Why it isn’t glaringly obvious to everyone that this dangerous criminal maniac needs to be bundled out of there as soon as possible is simply beyond me.
This is so important. Even if we escape without Trump becoming dictator, if we allow him to get away with this, the infrastructure is so crumbled that we won’t be able to prevent future dictators from using the tools he leaves behind.
And while it may be hard to imagine (even for me), it is possible to get even worse than Trump.
They should impeach him but it’s not else to do so… The plebes aren’t really following this and don’t care.
You’d think there’d be some sort of sancton or penalty for contempt of Congress, given that driving while Black is punishable by death.
The feebleness of the Dems is infuriating. The question ought to be ‘has the person under consideration done something that rises to a level which warrants impeachment? Y/N’ All of the excuses coming out about political expediency and potential loss of voters is just an excuse not to do their job. It is also tantamount to a declaration that they will never ever hold a Republican president responsible for anything, a guarantee of further corruption with complete impunity.
iknklast;
A Trump with a working brain.? Doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?
Yea, AoS, and I think there are a number of those in the GOP. Starting with Mike Pence, who is even more dangerous because he doesn’t blurt out what he’s thinking so people assume he is more reasonable. He is less vulgar, I will admit, but his ideas on women are even worse.
That’s why I’m hoping that if impeachment occurs, it does so in such a way that Trump is removed from office so close to the 2020 election that Pence has little or no time as President. Unlikely I know, but still….
It’s too much to hope that Pence becomes implicated in anything naughty as part of an investigation into Trump, I suppose. He strikes me as one who always just happens to be looking the other way, or has just left the room, or is out of earshot when the dirt happens.
But even if Trump were to take Pence down with him, what then? It’s scum all the way down in the Republican camp.