Marc Scaringi: Impeachment Will Cost Dems in 2020
In only the third time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives has voted to impeach a president of the United States. That the House did so on a purely partisan basis with Democratic defections reveals that this impeachment is not only doomed in the Senate — which is preordained — it’s doomed in the hearts and minds of half of America.
Democrats have undoubtedly scored a major victory against Trump, which they set out to accomplish the day he was elected. They’ve indelibly stained Trump’s presidency. Yet impeachment will turn out to be a pyrrhic victory; it will cost Democrats the U.S. Congress and the presidency in 2020.
One poll shows that in recent weeks Trump has gone from trailing to now leading former Vice President Joe Biden and other prominent Democratic candidates in hypothetical matchups.
Why? The House impeachment hearings are over, and the evidence is in. For the first time in our history, a president has been impeached for a non-criminal act.
Even the universally condemned impeachment of President Andrew Johnson included a crime, albeit one fabricated by the opposing political party. Without a crime, let alone a high crime or misdemeanor, the American people did not support the impeachment of Johnson; even though he was unpopular and considered by many to be obnoxious and divisive, he was acquitted.
Today, it’s déjà vu all over again.
After baiting the American people with grave declarations that Trump committed crimes such as bribery and extortion, when it came time to draft the articles of impeachment, Democrats showed their empty hand. Although they did accuse Trump of committing crimes in their underlying report, they omitted them from their articles.
Why? Because Democrats can’t prove it. This sleight of hand only provides further evidence that they are conducting a sham impeachment.
Not able to prove actual crimes, Democrats charged Trump with what they describe as “offenses” — “abuse of power” and “obstruction of congress” — and claim they’re “high crimes and misdemeanors” and thus impeachable under the Constitution.
But they’re not. The term “high crimes and misdemeanors,” under English parliamentary law, refers to serious crimes or misconduct involving the use of public office to breach the public trust and do grave harm to the nation and its political system.
Thus, former President Bill Clinton’s lying under oath about sex with his intern was both a crime and misconduct, but in neither case was it a “high crime or misdemeanor;” he was acquitted.
The Democrats’ case against Trump is even weaker.
Not only is there no crime or misconduct, but there also aren’t true facts — let alone those that would make out a case for impeachment. In Article One, Democrats allege, “President Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election.”
Yet these ominous words ring hollow. The president asking the Ukrainians to investigate the Biden family is not “interfering” in (i.e. preventing, altering or obstructing) the 2020 presidential election.
Nor is it jeopardizing the safety of the American people. Yet Democrats, in a herculean effort to charge the president with something that rises to the level of “high crimes or misdemeanors,” make the claim that Trump “abused the powers of the Presidency by ignoring and injuring national security” and “demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security.”
Really? Do you feel unsafe because Trump asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens? It’s utter nonsense.
Even worse is Article Two. Democrats claim that by defying House subpoenas, “Trump has abused the powers of the Presidency in a manner offensive to, and subversive of, the Constitution.”
Yet the president has the legal right to challenge the legality of the subpoenas. House Democrats should have taken Trump to court, like they did with former President Richard Nixon, so that the legal dispute could be resolved there; this is how our constitutional system, with its checks and balances, is supposed to work.
Democrats’ decision to deny the president his day in court, and to impeach him for asserting his rights, is what is offensive to and subversive of the Constitution.
The icing on this politically baked cake is this:
Trump said that he will ask the Senate to subpoena Biden to testify at his upcoming trial. Biden’s testimony is critical to Trump’s defense that his conduct toward Ukraine was in the national interest of rooting out corruption, thus revealing that Trump had no corrupt intent. When asked if he would comply, Biden said, “No, I will not yield to what everybody is looking for here. And that is to take the eye off the ball.”
And not a peep in protest from Democrats – even though Biden’s threatening to do what they’re impeaching Trump for.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows a slight plurality of Americans now oppose impeachment. That number will climb once the Articles reach the Senate. If Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refuses to send the Articles there, thus denying Trump his right to defend himself, those numbers will explode in favor of the president.
Whatever Pelosi does next, the damage to her party has already been done; thanks to the Democrats’ sham impeachment, Trump and the Republican Party will celebrate a big victory in November of 2020.
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