I was against the initial attempt by the House of Representatives to impeach President Trump. I was against it because it was a convenient excuse (a “Pleiku” as I explained). The Democratic Party wanted to impeach the President from the day of his election, and finally settled upon an excuse to do so. It was an ill-fated attempt (one Speaker Pelosi even initially opposed) and one that came to the impotent end it merited.
What is happening today is different. First, let’s remove the emotional aspects of this case. This impeachment is not about removing the President from office. It will barely affect his term. It is also not about the President’s claimed lapse into unreality. He has always believed what he wants, nothing has changed there. Nor is it about his finger on the nuclear trigger. Some may be excused for not knowing this, but Speaker Pelosi does, so she bears responsibility for the hysteria she engendered: there is an entire system involved in nuclear release. It is not a button to be pushed. There are messages, codes, things that must be ascertained and confirmed. The system is designed to allow the President to respond in the case of a surprise nuclear attack. In the absence of indications of inbound missiles, it does not allow the President to launch, willy-nilly.
So what is this about? Since his surprise (to him) election loss, President Trump has been in engaging in a slow-motion autogolpe (tip of the hat to Ken Copeland for reminding me of the word!), which is a Latin American term for when the leader attempts to retain power through non-legal means. The President began his opposition to the election results legally, but after losing lawsuit after lawsuit, he began seeking and supporting other means.
What happened at the Capitol was the culmination of those efforts. First, a legally permissible rally on the Mall followed by march to the Capitol building, which quickly descended into a riot and occupation. I have watched more video of the event that I care to admit, and it resembles every riot I have ever watched. Yes, there are people making specific threats against specific people, but they are screaming out as groups run and wander all about. In the end, all were allowed to leave, and they did so. Some coup. Law enforcement should treat this as the dangerous riot it was, nothing more but nothing less.
But this was no normal Congressional day. The President called for the rally, and spoke at the rally, and incited the rally members toward the Capitol to intimidate the only activity underway there: the counting and certifying of the electoral college results, finalizing the victory of Joe Biden. Did he specifically call for violence? No, but that is irrelevant. He organized the rally, fired up the rally goers, and sought to pressure the electoral certification. While there was very little chance of this scheme working in any real sense, the very act itself was an affront to the notions of the peaceful transfer of power all Americans should hold dear.
This President has routinely broken norms, and rarely if ever acknowledges any limits that should restrict his behavior. But there are norms and then there are rules, and he broke both. For the latter, he should be charged with impeachment by the House of Representatives and found guilty by the Senate. Most importantly, he should be banned from further federal public office, not only making an example of him but also removing the danger of another Trump candidacy. Perhaps the Republican Party can seize the opportunity to rediscover its moral bearings.
One final point: I still strongly oppose invoking the 25th Amendment. That law was introduced to cover the eventuality of an incapacitated President, not the removal of one who has behaved poorly or even illegally. The former is solved by an election; the latter is reserved for impeachment. The discussion of the 25th Amendment is one that should only be conducted in private among the principals involved (the Vice President, the Cabinet) to compare notes about disability, not bandied about by the Speaker of the House. As I have said before: we must avoid setting new, ill-advised precedents in response to the Trump presidency. Mark my words: having just elected a seventy-eight year old man to the presidency, we’ll hear more about invoking the 25th Amendment in the next four years!
As an actual Republican, I could not agree more with everything you said. Thanks Pat!
Well written! I wish a lot of people know could and world read this
Pat, I think you make some compelling points and I didn’t like the way the articles of impeachment were drafted. Trump’s most obvious crime is dereliction of duty for not doing more to stop the spread of COVID and not speaking out against the rioters when they first broke through the cordon outside the Capitol. Trump didn’t show up for work. Then he did not direct sufficient security forces to suppress the riot.
I have seen too much evidence of riots and mayhem the last year by all the hateful agenda driven people of the left and nothing but peaceful activities by the right. I don’t like the idea of the sanctity of the capital being attacked and in all the videos it almost seems like two different groups of people.What I do see over the last year is praising one type of riot and phony dismay and outrage at this one.
But having said that, I am seeing the total abuse of legal authority and constant violations of several parts of the constitution and I am wondering that the continued decline of freedom and honor toward our founding principles may require incredible violence to turn the tide.
The shifting of power and control of all three branches of govt (SCOTUS will get packed by whatever means necessary) will make the Constitution a voided document. At some point the land of the free and the home of the brave will become the land of the lemmings and the home of the fearful or some real men may have to do everything to stop us from becoming serfs to the elitists.
All the paradigms have changed and the forces that have been building and embedding in the background and that are now going to be in charge give me visages of 1984.
When you take an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and then you see suddenly that most of the enemies are domestic it creates a desire to return to the fray by whatever means necessary.
Thanks, Pat. Much appreciate this thoughtful and balanced piece. IMHO, the best way to unify the country is for both Democrats and Republicans to unite through this impeachment trial – that our constitution means more than one man’s efforts to undermine it.