Laurence
Tribe, Carl M. Loeb University Professor and professor of constitutional law at
Harvard Law School, has written an opinion in the Washington Post arguing that
“NOW” is the time to impeach Donald Trump.
In fact,
this appeal comes a day before the most recent charges that the President
revealed classified information to Russian operatives and ambassadors in his
Oval Office, information which may well endanger Americans and certainly
threaten the lives of agents working for the United States in dangerous areas
of the world populated by those who might wish the U.S. great harm.
“The time has come for Congress to launch an
impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice.
The remedy of impeachment was designed to
create a last-resort mechanism for preserving our constitutional system. It
operates by removing executive-branch officials who have so abused power
through what the framers called "high crimes and misdemeanors" that
they cannot be trusted to continue in office.
“No American president has ever been removed
for such abuses, although Andrew Johnson was impeached and came within a single
vote of being convicted by the Senate and removed, and Richard Nixon resigned
to avoid that fate.”
An
historical review of the questionable business practices of Donald Trump by
David Cay Johnston, The Making of Donald Trump, follows his blemished career as a
red-lining apprentice in his father’s real estate ventures in New York, his
penchant for seeking adulation even in pretense when calling into media shows
as John Barron in order to extoll his own greatness in third person, and his
employment of the mob and lawyers like Roy Cohn to expedite deals and problems
with immigrant workers razing Bonwitt-Teller during the night.
As we are finding
out: anything goes for Donald Trump. As
long as it all goes to Donald Trump and his close family.
“Now the country is faced with a president
whose conduct strongly suggests that he poses a danger to our system of
government.
“Ample reasons existed to worry about this
president, and to ponder the extraordinary remedy of impeachment, even before
he fired FBI Director James Comey and shockingly admitted on national
television that the action was provoked by the FBI's intensifying investigation
into his campaign's ties with Russia.
“Even without getting to the bottom of what
Trump dismissed as "this Russia thing," impeachable offenses could
theoretically have been charged from the outset of this presidency. One
important example is Trump's brazen defiance of the foreign emoluments clause,
which is designed to prevent foreign powers from pressuring U.S. officials to
stray from undivided loyalty to the United States. Political reality made
impeachment and removal on that and other grounds seem premature.”
“No longer. To wait for the results of the
multiple investigations underway is to risk tying our nation's fate to the
whims of an authoritarian leader.
“Comey's summary firing will not stop the
inquiry, yet it represented an obvious effort to interfere with a probe
involving national security matters vastly more serious than the
"third-rate burglary" that Nixon tried to cover up in Watergate. The
question of Russian interference in the presidential election and possible
collusion with the Trump campaign go to the heart of our system and ability to
conduct free and fair elections.
“Consider, too, how Trump embroiled Deputy
Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, despite
Sessions' recusal from involvement in the Russia investigation, in preparing
admittedly phony justifications for the firing on which Trump had already
decided. Consider how Trump used the vice president and White House staff to
propagate a set of blatant untruths — before giving an interview to NBC's
Lester Holt that exposed his true motivation.
“Trump accompanied that confession with
self-serving — and manifestly false — assertions about having been assured by
Comey that Trump himself was not under investigation. By Trump's own account,
he asked Comey about his investigative status even as he was conducting the
equivalent of a job interview in which Comey sought to retain his position as
director.
“Further reporting suggests that the
encounter was even more sinister, with Trump insisting that Comey pledge
"loyalty" to him in order to retain his job. Publicly saying he saw
nothing wrong with demanding such loyalty, the president turned to Twitter with
a none-too-subtle threat that Comey would regret any decision to disseminate
his version of his conversations with Trump — something that Comey has every
right, and indeed a civic duty, to do.”
Thus far,
none of the Republican leadership seems willing or even interested in questioning
the lack of leadership in the White House and even less the irreparable harm
its has and will cause or position in the world’s stage. Now, perhaps with lives at risk, American
lives, McConnell and Ryan will do something which reflects their real concern
for the country itself, although such action is sadly doubtful.
“It
will require serious commitment to constitutional principle, and courageous
willingness to put devotion to the national interest above self- interest and
party loyalty, for a Congress of the president's own party to initiate an
impeachment inquiry. It would be a terrible shame if only the mounting prospect
of being voted out of office in November 2018 would sufficiently concentrate
the minds of representatives and senators today.”
Read the entire
article here:
I cannot understand why many states still require Civics or Government classes for graduation from high school. (Several states have already dropped these requirements.)
ReplyDeleteCorruption as government has replaced the sanity of the actual rule of law. You yourself faced a state representative who told you that she could make any new laws that would break old laws that protected our pensions. Changing shoes for her seems as easy as betraying traditional rules of law and precedent.
Dismantling governmental safeguards as part of the donor payback expected of legislators has become the new reality. Well, that basic shift in thinking is precisely what is behind the present dismantling of American government. A talk radio host who denies climate change and has no science background will be appointed head of the EPA by the president. Emergency managers are appointed by governors and mayors to override elected officials from school boards to counties and cities. Appointed school boards for charter schools who are accountable to no one exist in nearly every state.
Civics classes? What page in what textbook guarantees the accuracy of that thuggery? How many citizens believe that "do whatever it takes" is better than imperfect government of the people, for the people, and by the people?
Will a Republican House majority and Senate 60% vote to impeach a Republican president who has a 39% approval rating by the American people occur? This is reality. Traditional impeachment processes, past and present, do not even mention this.
Even the present Supreme Court cannot be counted on to follow the actual rule of law. Supreme Court spinners have replaced Supreme Court justices.
Trump is the symptom of the disease of corruption and power. As a symptom, he must be treated and suppressed. His last few interviews have demonstrated a man who is unravelling himself. He will spin out, lose it and leave office before Congress will successfully impeach him.