What the Democrats don’t understand is that impeachment is a legal process, not a political vendetta.
And so it is that, after almost three years of preparation, their big impeachment announcement was little more than a press stunt, a flag-draped launch of their 2020 campaign.
Because presidents are impeached for reasons. Those reasons are called high crimes and misdemeanors – specific criminal acts which can be identified and proven.
For example, Andrew Johnson was impeached for firing Edwin Stanton, Richard Nixon was almost impeached for criminal conspiracy to conceal a felony, and Bill Clinton was impeached for lying under oath.
Those were each alleged in their day to be crimes. Alleged upon probable cause, as the Fourth Amendment requires, and ultimately potentially provable beyond a reasonable doubt.
That’s impeachment.
But that’s not what happened with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement.
She instead averred that Donald Trump had “violated his oath” and “endangered national security.”
And a bunch of general, non-specific filler that boiled down to: “We hate Trump.”
Or, more accurately: “We’re pissed we lost the election, and we’ll be damned if we’re going to lose the next one.”
Because, ultimately, there was no accusation in her accusation. No time, date, place or offense. No explanation of what “violated his oath” meant, when Trump did it, what evidence there is to support the claim of a violation, or how doing so would constitute a high crime or misdemeanor. Likewise for endangering national security. When did he do that, what proof do you have, and what specific federal or state statue does that violate?
And as an historical aside, you’d be hard pressed to find a president – beginning with Barack Obama – who had not, in pursuit of one policy or another, endangered national security. It kind of comes with the territory.
Ask FDR about anchoring the entire Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
But back to the “impeachment inquiry.”
There’s no such thing.
There is nowhere in federal law or congressional precedent any such thing as an “impeachment inquiry.” There are inquiries aplenty, but they are all of a type, and they go on all the time. And the main inquiry into the conduct of Donald Trump has been underway for some time in the House Judiciary Committee. Ditto for the House Oversight and Intelligence Committees.
So, beyond a bunch of flags and an apparent overdose of botox, the Pelosi announcement meant nothing. There was no vote, there was no signature, there was no new operation of law.
There was merely a turning loose of the dogs of political war, as she said she was ordering six unspecified Democrat-run committees to investigate all things Trump. This could have more efficiently been handled by sending a press release for planning purposes to CNN, MSNBC and the vestiges of the East Coast “newspapers.” That way the Democrats in the House and in the press could coordinate their anti-Trump crusade of the next many months.
I hate to use the phrase “witch hunt,” for fear Trump has it trademarked, but what else do you call this?
In America, theoretically, criminal and congressional investigations are launched on the basis of probable cause to believe a specific bad act has taken place. Police or politicians may then investigate evidence around that specific alleged act.
But there are no specific alleged acts here.
He’s being investigated because he’s a Republican.
Which is the legal equivalent of being investigated because you’re black.
It is an investigation based on prejudice and self-interest. And it is all a show, a partnership with the press to spend the next several months turning the evening news and the smartphone news feed into a free attack ad on all things Republican. This is brought to you by the Committee to Un-elect the President, a wholly owned subsidiary of the progressive movement and its American franchise, the Democratic Party.
Trump isn’t perfect. As a Republican who has supported him from the beginning, I’m tired of him. I could name half a dozen others I’d prefer to him as my party’s presidential candidate next year.
But right is right and wrong is wrong. And this “impeachment inquiry” is wrong. It is not part of a legal process potentially leading to the removal by law of the president. It is a media manipulation intended to promote the interests of the Democrats in next year’s elections.
It is another facet in the slow-motion coup the Democrats have been advancing since Election Night 2016.