House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) expressed his personal support for impeaching President Donald Trump Monday, taking a step further than most of his fellow Democratic leaders.
"Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties." – Abraham Lincoln
For some reason the Democrats can’t seem to hear that failing to impeach will hurt them just as badly, if not worse. Who wants to vote for a party that refuses to stand by its convictions, out of fear that it might cost them the next election? What it suggests is that if they do win, they will sit on their hands and do nothing.
You’re conflating separate issues.
Not a good look.
The Democrats in Congress are working to educate the public to the severity of Trump’s misdeeds and malfeasance.
This takes time, because the public is pretty dense and resistant to such information.
The party as a whole has a great set of priorities for after Trump’s defeat.
Anyone who would not vote for the Democrats—regardless of how the impeachment issue turns out—is supporting Trump.
Period.
Full Stop.
“…not because he’s going to be removed from office — the Senate won’t do that…"
Ralph Waldo Emerson: “When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”
(Note to Secret Service: This is what’s known as a “metaphor”.)
I think Digby has a good take on this.
Bill Barr’s Department of Justice is disingenuously refusing to hand over grand jury documents from the Mueller report, citing the House’s muddled messaging, and specifically House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s repeated statements that they are not in the midst of an impeachment investigation. Meanwhile Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., is clearly pushing from the other direction, taking the first official procedural steps toward an impeachment inquiry last week. The party is all over the place and it couldn’t have picked a worse time.
I realize that none of the candidates vying for the 2020 nomination want to step on congressional toes. But House Democrats are making a hash of this. Impeaching Trump is the first step in the major reform agenda that will be necessary to deal with this complex set of challenges. And the Democrats’ eventual candidate will have a lot to lose if the House doesn’t follow through.
You know that Trump will run on the message of Democratic fecklessness and his own survival superpower. “They couldn’t find anything wrong! I am too strong for them!” The way things are going, more than a few of those famous swing voters might just conclude that he’s right.
Anyone who would vote for Trump is, at this point, unreachable.
Fuck 'em.
Nadler is making two important points here. First, you can’t just impeach the guy, you have to build a case and convince the American people that impeachment is the correct remedy. Even if you think it is and you’re right, if you don’t build the case you’ll never convince enough people that you’re not on a partisan witch hunt. People campaigning for impeachment keep forgetting this, and their rush to start a trial is doomed without the buy in of Americans.
The second point is that impeachment has to be followed through if there is enough evidence, even if Moscow Mitch is going to block it (and he won’t even let it come up for a discussion, we all know that). If the investigations shows Trump has done impeachable things, and if the American people agree with that, then the Republicans will be cutting their own throats by blocking a trial in the Senate. This point is aimed at Pelosi and Democrats who want to avoid impeachment for political reasons (good ones, impeachment risks pissing a lot of people off).
The investigation needs to go forward, we need a real investigation with evidence (and that unfortunately depends on the blocking of any executive testimony being stopped in court), and then we need to take the right steps after that.
Ummmm… I won’t even date 'em.
People who understand that Donald Trump is a monster who is destroying the country!
Sane people!
Decent people!
People who aren’t choking on their privilege!
People who dislike the fact that babies are dying in cages at the border!
Thankfully, none of this is true just because you assert it.
Beating Trump is a very very important thing to accomplish … but emphatically stating you will beat Trump is not alone going to make for a sustainable agenda to inspire people to stand in long lines to vote. There has to be more - there have to be substantial plans for programs that will make improvements in real life that people can believe in.
Forget what the Constitution says, only partisan political considerations are important.
Isn’t it nice to know that Pelosi puts partisan political considerations over the rule of law?
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has maintained that impeachment is a losing tactic because the Senate will acquit the President and it might hurt Democrats politically.”
Citation needed. I didn’t hear that recently. She’s made it clear it was not about acquittal long ago.
I’ve posted that link here twice. Given everything else we’ve seen, it’s seems pretty likely that McConnell would just refuse to try the case. And then what?
Then, IF the public investigation was sufficient to convince a significant number of voters, McConnell and any others refusing to convict go down in flames in the next election.
“Personally, I think President ought to be impeached, …”
Lame.
I’m sure Chairman Nadler meant, “Personally, I think we must impeach the President”
“In my personal opinion, impeachment is imperative not because he’s going to be removed from office — the Senate won’t do that — but because we have to vindicate the Constitution,”
Better. Nobody else is going to do it. And thanks to the Chairman for phrasing it properly.
It is quoted from the article at the top of this page that is the subject of this thread.