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Impeachment Day is upon us. It shouldn’t be difficult. He committed High Crimes.

Published by digby on December 19, 2019

Impeachment Day is upon us. It shouldn’t be difficult. He did it. 

by digby

A Holiday message from the people

NBC’s Mark Murray laid out the case very succinctly this morning on twitter:

The impeachment fight boils down to four simple questions:

1. Did the president of the United States ask another country to interfere in the upcoming 2020 election?

2) Did Trump and his administration withhold military aid and a White House visit to compel Ukraine to start this investigation into Joe Biden and his son?

3. Were those actions — first the ask of interference, then the temporary withholding of military aid — an abuse of the president’s powers?

4. Do those actions amount to impeachable offenses?

The Constitution says the following offenses are impeachable: “treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors”

Josh Marshall looks at the constitutional background and explains why this is important:

If we step back from signature phrases like “high crimes and misdemeanors” and look at the document in its totality, foreign subversion is a central, paramount concern in erecting a robust presidential power. The president is the only person who can never have had a foreign allegiance. He or she is specifically prohibited from accepting any thing of value or any power or title from a foreign power. 

The impetus to creating the constitution was the perceived need to create a more robust central government and more powerful executive. The other signature, structural element of the document is the fear that this empowered executive will use these powers to perpetuate their own power and break free of the republican system of government on behalf of which and for which they hold these powers. Both of these central fears about presidential power are directly implicated in Trump’s criminal behavior.

For most of the last century these embedded fears of foreign subversion (certainly monetary rather than ideological subversion) have seemed archaic or quaint. In 1787, the United States was a marginal, weak republic contending in a world of rich kings. In the 20th century, US power and wealth were too vast and overwhelming for this to seem much of a concern. Trump and the plutocratic, strongman era have brought that reality back with a vengeance. 

Far more than Watergate, certainly more that the frivolous impeachment of Bill Clinton, crimes like Trump has committed are precisely, uniquely what the constitution writers created impeachment to prevent. It’s true that there are a lot of other bad things Trump has done which likely merit impeachment. But the vast majority of them are similar in kind to this, subversion by foreign powers and the use of the powers given to a President for just administration to corruptly perpetuate his or her own power.

I would add that although the Democrats chose not to impeach him specifically for the numerous examples of obstruction of justice fully laid out in the Mueller Report, the reality is that Trump has been welcoming foreign interference and sabotage on his behalf since 2016 and he worked feverishly to cover it up. He admitted in a televised interview that he would certainly do it again.

His campaign and administration have both been sewers of corruption, much of it having to do with his minions’ relationships with foreign actors, monetary and otherwise. His former campaign chairman, deputy campaign chairman, national security adviser and longtime political adviser have been tried and convicted for their criminal behavior, all having to do with various aspects of foreign interference in Donald Trump’s 2016 election and their subsequent attempts to cover up their crimes.

As we speak, Trump personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is doing it again, openly and without apology.

Meanwhile, Trump and his legal henchmen in the White House and the Department of Justice have created a new doctrine of presidential immunity which they have argued in court would preclude anyone, including the congress and all law enforcement from even investigating a sitting president and the executive branch.

Donald Trump is asserting the prerogatives of a King subject only to the elections at four year intervals. And even then he often “jokes” about how he might not leave office when his term is up.

In other words, he and his lawless administration believe the president is entirely above the law during his term of office.

Or, as he puts it: “I can do anything I want.”  And what he want is for foreign governments to step in and smear and sabotage his political opponents. Whether it’s his idea or something a particular adversary is compelling him to do, we still don’t know.

But as I’ve been pointing out repeatedly over the past few months, this problem is not Trump. He is a creature that naturally evolved out of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. The latter laid the groundwork for such an imbecile to become president with their relentless propaganda that dumbed-down half the American electorate to believe anything they’re told by right-wing media. And the total corruption of the Republican establishment is what defends him to this day.

They know he is an unfit criminal but he’s their unfit criminal and that’s all they care about. The Republican Party, now pared down to its essence, is a criminal enterprise itself, dedicated to protecting its power  and its wealthy patrons by any means necessary.

American politics has been defined by the two parties we have today ever since the civil war. The contours have shifted over time, regionally and ideologically. But that ancient construct is on fire, due to the final immolation of the Republican party under Donald Trump and we don’t know yet what’s going to rise from its ashes.

There is no guarantee that we will revert to a recognizable equilibrium. It could be something much more destabilizing or it could be something much improved. If we can manage to keep the Republicans from completely degrading our elections systems whether through vote suppression or invitations to foreign interference, we have a chance to make a better future.

God help us if anything truly catastrophic happens in the meantime. Here is your president showing his usual grace under pressure as the impeachment debate unfolds on the House floor:

People are starting to take to the streets again:

This is a good sign. It’s going to take all hands on deck over the next year to put an end to this nightmare. I plan to keep doing what I do here as well as continue to work with Blue America PAC to elect progressives to national office.

I have my own favorites in the presidential primary but I’ll do whatever is in my power to ensure that the Democratic nominee beats Donald Trump next November as will my contributors, especially Tom Sullivan who writes with tremendous insight into the state of grassroots organizing and works on the ground in his home state of North Carolina.

If you have he means to help support this blog for another year, I would be very grateful.

Again, thank you so much for reading and supporting my work all these years. It means the world to me. — digby

And Happy Hollandaise everyone!

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