Friday, September 27, 2019

Trump Impeaches Himself (& It May Cost GOP The Senate)

Donald Trump (and his lackey, William "Whitewash" Barr) have repeatedly claimed that the Mueller Report cleared Trump of any wrongdoing. Trump claims the report found "no collusion" and "no obstruction".

That is not true. While Mueller claimed he did not have the evidence to prove Trump conspired with Russia to affect the 2016 election, he found over 100 instances in which members of the Trump campaign met with Russians during the campaign. And he also found about half a dozen instances in which Trump actively tried to obstruct justice while being investigated (and the only reason charges were brought was because of a Justice Department policy to not file charges against a sitting president).

Add to this the fact that Trump paid off a woman he had extra-marital sex with to protect his campaign, and it's obvious to those who would look that there were charges to be brought in an impeachment proceeding.

Sadly, a majority of House Democrats (including the Speaker) were too afraid to start those impeachment hearings. They were afraid that impeaching Trump would hurt Democrats in the 2020 election. Frankly, it was beginning to look like Trump would be able to avoid any consequences for his criminal conduct. He could have avoided impeachment through the next election.

Then Trump's rampant narcissism got the best of him. He decided he could not be impeached no matter what he did, and the only way he could be put out of office would be to lose the 2020 election. And he was worried about that (especially if he had to run against Joe Biden). How would he prevent that?

Trump decided that since he was elected with the help of a foreign government in 2016 (and got away with it), then he could use the help of a foreign government to win in 2020. He decided to ask the Ukrainian government to give him some dirt on Joe Biden (or his son) -- or at least initiate an investigation into them, so Trump could claim they were being investigated for corruption. In other words, he asked for campaign help from a foreign government -- a clear violation of U.S. election law.

He thought he could keep his request (or extortion, since he threatened to refuse military aid to Ukraine) a secret. What he did not count on was an honest and courageous intelligence official who filed a whistleblower complaint. After trying to keep the complaint from going to Congress and failing, Trump decided to bluff his way through the scandal -- as he had done before. He actually admitted asking the Ukraine president to investigate Biden and his son, claiming he was just looking for corruption.

Trump and his Republican friends are trying to play off the request as unimportant. But it's very important. It goes straight to the sanctity of our electoral system. We cannot allow foreign powers to interfere with our elections -- and for a president to seek election help from a foreign government is nothing less than an attack on our representative democracy!

Whether Trump used extortion or not (and I think he did) is not the crux of this matter. Republicans are repeatedly saying there was no "quid pro quo". That doesn't matter. Trump has admitted asking a foreign government to give him something of value to help his 2020 campaign -- a investigation of the Bidens. That is not just serious, but impeachable.

Basically, Trump just impeached himself! His admission forced House Democrats off the fence. With him admitting to a serious election violation, they had to start impeachment proceedings -- and they have done that. It is now a foregone conclusion that the House of Representatives will fairly soon vote to impeach Donald Trump.

That throws the ball into Senate hands -- and the Republicans did not want that. It puts Senate Republicans between a rock and a hard place. If they don't vote to protect Trump and keep him in the White House, they will face the rage of Republican primary voters. If they vote to remove Trump from office, they will face the rage of a majority of voters in the 2020 general election. Those from red states may survive, but those in purple states could very well lose to a Democrats. This could well be just what the Democrats needed to flip the Senate.

Trump went too far this time, and Republican officials know it (even if they won't admit it publicly). He has gotten himself impeached, and is doing that, he has knifed his fellow Republicans in the back.

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