We’ll need to hope the R-held Senate can dredge up a 2/3 vote to convict PP after he’s impeached. They couldn’t find the votes to convict Clinton whom they hated.
Thanks for the piece. This is why I’m praying as hard as I can to an entity I’m not sure exists for that finding of “clear presidential wrongdoing” – something so clear that even the least-informed will be convinced and only the hardest of the hard-core Trumpists will try to dismiss it. Because I fear that all possibilities short of quickly-out-of-office-and-into court bode ill for our future:
- an impeached but not Senate-convicted Trump will be even more unfettered and dangerous than he is now;
- a resigned but not court-convicted Trump could become the kind of powerful demagogue/movement leader this country’s never seen;
- a Trump that remains in office until (or, horrifyingly, beyond) 2021 can do increasing damage to our government and our polity with every passing month.
To save us, we all desperately need to get everyone we can to register and vote for Democrats at every level in November, which will help rein Trump in, and perhaps send a message to remaining Senate Republicans that, in the event of impeachment, a vote to convict will actually be politically wise as well as the right thing. But for impeachment and conviction to be widely seen as warranted, Trump’s offenses will have to be widely seen as “high crimes.” Which means that, IMO, a finding of “clear presidential wrongdoing” – which looks quite possible, though we have no real idea what Mueller’s got – is essential if we’re to avoid becoming unrecognizable as a nation.
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No, Ryan will not let a bill go forward but perhaps a Democratic speaker would. Nevertheless, the Senate must vote to convict by a 2/3 vote, and they senate couldn’t find those vote to convict to Clinton and they hated him. People shouldn’t be putting their hopes on impeachment and ultimately conviction no matter who the party leaders are January. As to Will, I want him to keep speaking up. Any right wing voice is welcome.
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“High crimes and misdemeanors” are whatever Congress deems them to be. Out of all the possible ways this country has of ridding ourselves of the president, this IMHO is going to be the most difficult to achieve. But a satirical take on impeachment is this
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In what they believe is a legal masterstroke, lawyers for Donald J. Trump are now claiming that he cannot be impeached because he was never actually elected.
In a lengthy memo sent to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, the lawyers pushed back vehemently against any allegation that Trump was legally elected President.
“Because Russian interference made the election of Donald J. Trump wholly illegitimate, any attempt to remove him from an office that he does not legally hold is clearly impossible,” the memo asserted.
The memo claimed that the Constitution contains “no provision for removing a person from office when that person was installed there by a foreign power.”
The memo went on to argue that, if a subpoena is sent to the White House, it will be returned to Mueller and stamped “addressee unknown.”
“A person referred to in a subpoena as ‘President’ Donald J. Trump simply does not exist,” the memo claimed.
Minutes after the memo was leaked, the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani appeared on “Fox & Friends” and proudly announced that he was its author.
“Sometimes I have to just step back and say, ‘Damn it, Rudy, you’re good,’ ” he said, beaming.
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How much dirty Russian money went into McConnell’s campaigns over the last 15 years?
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Yes, they’re (almost) whatever Congress deems them to be; but for impeachment to be broadly accepted as legitimate (and hence to have a chance of being ratified by conviction in the Senate, which we agree is right now an impossibility), the basis for the charges needs to be accepted by most people as truly constituting “high crimes.”
If my comment didn’t make it clear enough, I agree that that will be difficult to achieve – unless Mueller does find “clear presidential wrongdoing” that’s seen as such by a fairly overwhelming majority. Which is why I’m praying to the entity I’m not sure exists for such a finding. Because while the impeachment-conviction-indictment-conviction path is indeed the most difficult, the sheer time (at least) it’ll take to work through all the “less difficult” paths make it almost a certainty that we’ll be an irreparably damaged country by the time we’ve worked through them.
(And yes, big Borowitz fan here; gotta keep laughing…)
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It is difficult to comprehend, but I think there is literally (and I dislike that word so much) nothing Trump could do, no crime he could commit, no moral or ethical transgression, and the Senate would muster 67 votes to convict him in the trial phase… Murder, arson, treason, pedophilia, rape, it wouldn’t matter. Sure, there would be wide outrage and anger. Millions would recoil and demand his head. Maybe even 60-ish Senators vote to convict. But not 67. Once the vote counting got underway NO ONE would dare be the 67th vote to convict. Regardless the crime.
You know it’s impossible to take you seriously when you insist on overstating everything to the nth if not the hysterical, degree.
Pedophelia, murder, arson?
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The 4 Horseman of the Ocrapolis !
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Yes. Senators value their careers far more than they value justice or the law. No Senator wants to go down in history as the vote that removed Trump from office. Trump’s supporters do not care what crimes Trump commits, including all I’ve listed. This is a cult. Cults are loyal to their leader above all else. A Senator voting to convict will immediately draw a primary opponent and lose his/her seat in Congress. Even a retiring Senator would suffer negative consequences from Trump loyalists, consequences that followed them to their grave. I stand by my statement. There is no crime Trump can commit that would cause 67+ Senators to boot him from office. That is not hyperbole, it’s fact.
No it’s not fact - it has not been established as fact it is your mental construction.
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It’s the greatest mental construction in history!! It’s setting records!! No mental construction has ever been this great!! Everyone agrees!!
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hahahahahahahahahahaha
The inspector general report has nothing to do with the Mueller investigation. McConnell knows this. He is engaging in the same obfuscation as Trump because he sees that it works, We are doomed.
F*CK…your assessment is the most plausible scenario I’ve heard.
From fivethirtyeight.com:
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McConnell and other Republican scum like him need to pay for their crimes. This piece of shit traitor tried to help the Russians continue their election interference and they continue to cover up for them now.
There need to be treason trials for these parasites.
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It doesn’t really matter what they find. Trump loving traitors will never believe it and they’ll have to be confronted sooner or later you can guarantee that. They will never stop lying, stealing and trying to destroy America in order to set up their right wing racist dictatorship. This won’t end well.
Untangling this rat’s nest will take time. Unlike the years it took to scour Clinton’s hide over Benghazi, an event that took place over the course of a day.