Based on House Dem's Statement, Dems Clearly Readying 2nd Trump Impeachment
Let’s face facts here: At a certain level, the proposed articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump have to do with part of the Democrats’ campaign against his re-election.
Certainly, we’ve been told that they’re taking this as a very solemn duty. Morning, noon and evening, powerful Democrats are paraded out in front of the camera to assure us they’re taking this every bit as solemnly as a solemn wedding solemnization at Our Lady of Perpetual Solemnity.
This is somewhat belied when you consider the number of Democrats — including some of their witnesses, like the constitutional law expert who said Trump could be impeached in 2017, long before there was anything even remotely impeachable.
How about another? Here’s Noah Feldman on impeachment, March 2017. Not even TWO months post inauguration.https://t.co/FMiq3Ng48W
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
This could, of course, backfire. The articles of impeachment are bound to die in the Senate and, given that the rules are significantly different, there’s the chance that the backlash could actually help Trump win a second term. So, what then?
Well, just impeach him again, obviously.
Democratic Rep. Karen Bass of California appeared in a TMZ interview with site founder Harvey Levin on Tuesday. There are so few promising, nuanced political stories that have started with a permutation of that sentence and Bass’ interview didn’t break the streak.
During the interview, Levin presented Bass with a hypothetical situation in which Trump won a second term but the Democrats were able to consolidate gains in Congress.
“There’s no such thing, really, as double jeopardy in an impeachment trial because it’s political,” Levin said.
“Suppose he gets re-elected, but you’re right and you win back the Senate in a big way. If you did that, would you be inclined to take a second bite at the apple and reintroduce the exact same impeachment articles and then send it through again a second time if you have a Democratic Senate on your side?”
“So, you know, yes, but I don’t think it would be exactly the same and here’s why,” Bass said, “because even though we are impeaching him now, there’s still a number of court cases, there’s a ton of information that could come forward.
“For example, we could get his bank records and find out that he’s owned 100 percent by the Russians.”
Rep. Karen Bass Says House Open to Impeaching Trump Again if He Wins 2020 pic.twitter.com/INDb5QpsM3
— TMZ (@TMZ) December 11, 2019
It’s the Russkies! They’re back, y’all! Well, actually, they didn’t necessarily go away after the Mueller report but it was mostly the province of the conspiracy theory-minded left, from the Oliver Stone-ish (Rachel Maddow) to the Alex Jones-esque (Louise Mensch).
I must admit as someone who got MTV at the same time “Real World 3” was a big thing, it’s still odd to think of Rachel Campos-Duffy as a political pundit. However, the Fox News contributor had one of the more clear-eyed explanations of why this was thoroughly insane:
“It just underscores what we have always known, that they are not concerned about facts, that they’re completely obsessed with getting rid of Trump. That all of these investigations from the Russia hoax to Ukraine, all of these things have been about trying to find a crime and fit it somehow into this impeachment narrative,” she said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday.
She then pointed to a poll in Wisconsin — a state the Democrats need to win if they have any chance in 2020 — showing 58 percent of voters disapprove of impeachment.
“They are willing to sacrifice winning in 2020, taking over or keeping their majority in the House and winning over the Senate because this is wildly unpopular where I live here in the middle of America, which is Wisconsin and the Midwest,” she said.
And here’s the thing: What Rep. Bass is saying is completely hypothetical. If they think he’s committed another crime, of course, impeachment would be on the table.
If Elizabeth Warren were elected president and it were proved she knocked over a series of banks with the remnants of the Symbionese Liberation Army in order to advance her anti-corporate agenda, yeah, we would impeach her. This is somewhat less likely than Trump’s tax returns proving he was a fully owned subsidiary of the Kremlin, but not by as much as you might think.
At a certain level, though, Rep. Bass nailed it: This is political. There are accusations of crimes tangentially attached to these articles of impeachment. When those articles fail the Senate — and barring new information, they certainly will — hope for new kinda-sorta-not-really-crimes to attach to new articles of impeachment.
And, in fact, Bass is sure they’re out there. They just need to be “found.”
“You are absolutely right in your scenario, but the only thing I would say slightly different is, it might not be the same articles of impeachment because the odds are we would have a ton more information, and then the odds of that, sadly enough, is that, you know, he probably has other examples of criminal behavior,” Bass said.
In other words, she believes this is a fait accompli. Trump “probably has other examples of criminal behavior” — completely unproven, mind you, but I’m sure they’re out there. Hence, you can pretty much pencil in “Impeachmentgate 2: Electric Boogaloo” sometime around January of 2021 if the election doesn’t go the Democrats’ way.
Just a tip: Don’t sound so hopeful, Rep. Bass. That could backfire in more ways than one. In fact, as Campos-Duffy and others would argue, it already has.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
