TRUMP: TREASON? A CALL TO ACTION

The Responsibility of Patriots: Impeach, Vote Democrat in Mid-term, Take our country back!

We wrote recently about former State Secretary Madeleine Albright’s warning that facist rumblings around the world

threaten democracy.  We didn’t hesitate, and neither did the Secretary in her book Fascism: A Warning, to include President Donald Trump among those about whom we should have such concerns.  Things have only gotten worse since we shared the publication.  More reasons than ever exist for believing Trump existentially threatens democratic institutions in this country and the alliances the United States helped fashion that have kept the western democracies safe in the 70 plus years since the Second World War.

 

We need not detail Trump’s disgraceful performance in Helsinkiafter his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Others have said plenty.  As American patriots, the three of us view Trump’s actions there as beyond the pale.  We’ve seen enough to declare Trump a Kleptocrat, if not an outright fascist.  His behavior calls for a response from all responsible Americans.

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

As lawyers, we know the dangers of hyperbole.  Lots of people say Trump represents a danger to democracy.  They point to his race baiting after Charlottesville, his disgraceful practice of separating infants and children from their parents at the border as part of a cruel immigration policy, his attacks on the Muslim religion, and his war on the media, Fox News exempted.  What’s different now is Trump’s willingness to bow to a foreign adversary while

disparaging and fighting with our allies – the countries that have stood with us and behind us throughout the post-war era.  No American should forget European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) came to our aid after September 11, 2001.

Yet, before he went to Finland and groveled next to Putin, there was Trump picking fights with Germany, Great Britain, and other NATO members.  He even audaciously labeled the European Union our “foe.”  Trump behaves as if he’d prefer helping Putin dissolve NATO, leaving the Russian President free to annex Eastern European states and perhaps even reconstitute the old Soviet Union, no doubt a goal of this ruthless ex-KGB agent.  Even if Putin can’t accomplish that, Trump has already helped him diminish the influence of the United States.  Some European countries say they can no longer depend on American leadership.

A TIME FOR ACTION: WHAT TO DO

As we’ve pointed out before in our blogs, the three of us don’t speak with one voice on many issues.  We are different people who, from time to time, express a variety of political positions and preferences.  Yes, we’re mostly Democrats, but we’re not the same kind of Democrat, and we don’t see every issue in partisan terms.  We think of ourselves as patriots and though we each live our patriotism differently, we put country before party.

Having said that, we acknowledge seeing only a partisan solution to the danger Donald Trump’s behavior poses to the country we love.  Ironically enough, in this circumstance, we take our cues from several Republicans.

Steve Schmidt ran John McCain’s 2008 Presidential campaign.  Schmidt has been,throughout his political career

a dedicated adherent to the Republican Party and the conservative movement.  He worked for George W. Bush and helped put two conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. Schmidt now, however, advocates a vote for Democratic candidates in this fall’s mid-term elections as the only way to undo the grave damage he sees Trump doing to America.  Schmidt, at least for the moment, has withdrawn from the Republican Party and sees voting Democratic as the proper response to Trump’s behavior.  Columnist George F. Will, another prominent Republican voice of long standing influence, echoed similar sentiments, urging independents and non-Trump Republicans to vote in a way that will “substantially reduce” the size of the Republican caucus in Congress.

Schmidt and Will see the same thing we do.  Democratic control of the House would open the possibility – even the probability – of impeachment proceedings against Trump.  We wrote about the mechanisms of impeachment in June 2017, noting that process can’t start without Democrats holding the levers of power.

Even if Congress doesn’t remove Trump from office (imagining the two-thirds vote in the Senate required for conviction remains difficult), an impeachment inquiry could reign in Trump’s behavior.  Because House Republicans have stood so strongly behind him, his behavior has gone unchecked.  Democrats who oppose him in Congress sometimes seem like they’re howling in the wind.  Trump hasn’t had to respond to subpoenas, release tax returns, or answer for financial and policy excesses.  With Democrats in control of even one house of Congress, things will change.  That howling may soon resemble a pack of hungry wolves on the trail of a wounded animal.

We think it possible, in fact, Special Counsel Robert Mueller already has much of his case against Trump made.  Mueller, a smart Washington operative, knows putting out his report now, with Republicans remaining in control of the House where impeachment must begin, means that report would 

likely get relegated to the trash can.  If Mueller believes he can’t indict a sitting President, making impeachment the only remedy for Trump’s crimes, Mueller may well have decided he’ll wait and present his report to a more receptive audience.  We can’t imagine a more receptive audience than a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.  That’s our dream and Trump’s worst nightmare.  

That’s what we think. Tell us what you think.    

            

The Impeachement of Trump: History and Two Views

The United States constitution provides for impeachment and conviction, resulting in removal from office, of a President for “High Crimes and Misdemeanors.”  The three of us agree the issue of impeaching President Donald Trump will arise. Enough of Trump’s actions present questions of illegality and/or impropriety that the matter will come up.  We don’t agree on when and how it might happen. Woodson says impeachment will occur within the first year of his presidency. Henry and Rob are not sure it will happen.

Recent History  
The two recent impeachment cases involving Richard Nixon in 1974 and Bill Clinton in 1998 raise questions related to what might bring about Trump’s impeachment and when. Nixon faced a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, but he could have avoided conviction if enough Senate Republicans had stayed with him, since conviction requires a two-thirds vote. Republican control of both the House and Senate, at least until the 2018 elections, represents a major obstacle to impeaching Trump. The effort to remove Clinton never had much chance because, though passage of a resolution by the House was not in doubt, hardly anyone believed the Senate would convict.  Similarly, Trump can survive as long as 34 Republican senators stick with him.

One View   
Having acknowledged the history and the potential difficulty of removing Trump from office, Woodson still believes it will happen within the next year.  He says, “Donald Trump’s behavior is more egregious than the behavior of either Nixon or Clinton. Donald Trump is a Kleptocrat.  We are less than 60 days into his presidency and already his choice for National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, has resigned under a cloud of treasonous suspicion for working as a foreign agent while serving in the Trump administration.  I think Trump knew. I think it will be proven that the Trump campaign staff was in collusion with the Russians in the 2016 Presidential election. I think Trump knew. Trump has been involved with the construction of a hotel in a foreign country that was partly financed by the Iranian Revolutionary Army, when Iran was declared a terrorist state.  I think Trump knew." 

"Trump has done dirty business with members of the Russian oligarchy, in one instance selling a property to one oligarch for 100 million dollars that Trump had just purchased for 40 million dollars.  No property appreciates in value that fast.  His daughter, Ivanka, and son- in- law Jared Kushner, continue to do business with foreign countries while sitting in on foreign policy meetings with Trump.  I think Trump is certain to be found guilty of running afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, both prior to and during his presidency.  Trump’s denigration of democratic institutions – the federal judiciary, federal judges, investigative agencies, and a free press – has already injured the foundation of this democracy and major western democracies around the world."

“It is just a matter of time before the few statesmen that we have left in Congress – Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Lindsey Graham, and John McCain – will decide that the future of democracy as we know it is at risk and decide to do something about it.  They will have to wait a little while longer, for public opinion to turn, before they can act. But, act they will. Trump’s assault on the ACA and health care, to the detriment of his base, will certainly hasten the deterioration of his popularity with his base.  As of this writing, his disapproval rating is at 54% and climbing.  Sure, Republicans will have to abandon their hopes of passing much of the legislation that they have waited years to pass.  But it will become increasingly clear to them that the choice is between a short term goal of getting a Republican agenda passed and preserving democracy. I am betting that the choice will be to preserve democracy.”

Different Views   
Henry and Rob don’t see it that way, despite how much they’d like to see Woodson’s prediction of a year one impeachment come true.  Rob, for example, holds out some hope Democrats can win back the House in 2018, giving them the levers of power in the lower chamber. If that happened, an impeachment resolution theoretically could get out of committee in 2019.  With a Democratic majority, it might pass. If Trump’s bad acts are serious enough, his support in the Senate could collapse, as Nixon’s did, with Republican senators scurrying to save their own skins instead of going down with a sinking ship.  They would have to calculate that doing otherwise would assure their own political destruction.  Rob can at least see this scenario after 2018, if a lot of things come together.

Henry sits back with some amusement, and angst, at this and concludes that while Trump will do something (or already has and we don’t know about it yet) meriting impeachment, the odds are just too long. The congressional math doesn’t add up and probably won’t before most of America concludes that finding the right candidate to run against Trump in 2020 represents a better use of time, energy, and resources than trying to impeach him.  Henry also thinks too many people “put two and two together and get five,” meaning Trump’s disinformation campaign has succeeded well enough that he can hold onto sufficient public support to stay in office until the electorate kicks him out the old fashioned way.

Your turn.