Impeachment is supposed to be the last step measure to reign in an out-of-control president. Congress shouldn’t use it as an unnecessary political weapon. In 2019, House Democrats moved swiftly to impeach then-President Donald Trump. Since his successful bid to win the White House in November 2016, numerous Democrats pledged to impeach and remove him from office. Despite anyone’s personal beliefs today on either side of the aisle, the four years of his presidency were riddled with strife from the Left intent on removing him from office on day one. Within his first year, two Democrats introduced articles of impeachment twice in July 2017 after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey, and 6 more did it again in November. That’s despite any president having the authority to cut lose an appointed bureaucrat.
In 2018, Democrats won the majority in the House. Freshman Democrat Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said what many in her party were already hoping for when she stated they would “impeach the motherf******.” Then, it happened, and whatever the facts, the optics were horrible.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claimed she wasn’t for impeachment. Yet, she wasn’t being honest with the public. Behind the scenes, a new book reveals Pelosi and others advocated strongly for impeaching Trump. Yet, one powerful Democrat questioned the strategy and was rolled over for suggesting the case wasn’t strong enough for impeachment and that Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) were bulldozing historical precedence and due process rights.
New Book Exposes Democrats Didn’t Care About Due Process Rights or Future Consequences
In Federalist 65, Alexander Hamilton warned impeachment would “seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused.” Translation — unless the process is done with integrity and genuine evidence is presented, partisans will divide into camps and create a chaotic and dangerous political atmosphere in which Americans will get embroiled in a toxic strategy to ruin a president.
That’s precisely what happened in 2019. During Senate testimony, George Washington University Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley expressed deep reservation about the Democrats’ push to punish Trump. He argued the impeachment would result in the “shortest proceeding, with the thinnest evidentiary record, and the narrowest grounds ever used to impeach a president.” Turley held Congress could impeach the president but suggested it would be unwise and create more discourse and erode civility among citizens.
Now, a new book titled “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump” exposes the hypocrisy behind the scenes of the two impeachments.
Politico Playbook co-author Rachel Bade and Washington Post reporter Karoun Demirjian wrote that House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and his staff raised serious concerns to Pelosi. He worried the House was abandoning historical precedence and due process guarantees. In addition, they argued Pelosi and Schiff weren’t honest with the public, and the facts behind the scenes contradicted their public statements.
Nadler said, “They’re (Republicans) going to argue we don’t have due process for Trump. Why make that argument real?” The authors noted Pelosi and Schiff overrode Nadler’s concerns that there was a lack of witness testimony and that they were denying his due process rights. He stated, “It’s unfair, and it’s unprecedented, and it’s unconstitutional.” Additionally, Nadler said, “if we’re going to impeach, we need to show the country that we gave the president ample opportunity to defend himself.”
While Nadler tried to make the case behind the scenes, publicly, he toed the line and supported Pelosi’s process that he reportedly believed was “unconstitutional” and abusive. Turley has repeated stated both impeachments against Trump were rushed and not about doing what was right but what worked best for the Democratic Party. In the process, they abandoned a core American value that everyone deserves justice under the law and due process rights.
So, while Congress can impeach a president at any time for any reason, the spirit of the Constitution isn’t to abuse Article I’s authority. Still, many argue the impeachments were wrong from a procedural and historical point of view.
What makes the matter even worse is the flippancy of Democrats who claimed Trump should have never been elected. Still, was it their choice to make on America’s behalf? Isn’t that what elections are for? It seems one should think long and hard before politically moving to remove any elected official until a case could be made the majority of voters could accept. There’s a reason impeachment has been an infrequent event in American history.
So, come to your own conclusion about what happened. Perhaps you don’t see a problem with what Pelosi and Schiff did in 2019. Regardless, it could come with significant consequences down the road. Maybe the worse one is the growing lack of trust between citizens and their government.
Don Purdum. MPS, Political Analyst
Copyright 2022, ConservativeEra.com
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