Steyer: Why Democrats Must Impeach the President

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/opinion/democrats-impeach-trump.html

Why Democrats Must Impeach the President
They won the House by promising to hold Trump accountable.
By Tom Steyer
Nov. 8, 2018

...

As President Trump continues to accelerate his lawlessness, the new Democratic House majority must initiate impeachment proceedings against him as soon as it takes office in January.

For nearly two years, Mr. Trump has publicly flouted his oath of office. He has turned the presidency into a moneymaking enterprise for a family business he refuses to divest from, in direct violation of any plain reading of the Constitution. He is all but an unindicted co-conspirator in two federal felony cases. He has created an atmosphere of criminality through his hateful, violent rhetoric against political opponents, journalists and private citizens alike.

Most egregiously, he has a longstanding pattern of obstructing justice. On Wednesday, he continued this by firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and installing Matthew Whitaker — who has publicly called for curtailing the special counsel’s investigation — as acting attorney general, sparking a constitutional crisis that threatens the rule of law itself.

As the list of Mr. Trump’s impeachable offenses — at least nine and counting — has grown, more than 6.2 million people across the country have signed a petition, created by my organization Need to Impeach, demanding that their representatives confront his lawlessness. For months, public support for impeaching the president has been roughly equal to what it was before Richard Nixon resigned.

....

[redstateblues]

1. That's great. What then with a Senate majority?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

7. let them be seen shirking their duty

Let Mitch explain on national tv and in Congressional record exactly why he fails to do his duty. Then, repeat investigations (TrumPutin is a target rich environment), impeach, and repeat.

That won't take up all the time of the House. They can be busily cleaning up GOP messes while Mitch is mulling over 2020.

[TexasBushwhacker]

10. Exactly

We are even further from being able to get the 67 votes needed to convict than we were before. Assuming both Independents voted to convict, we would still need over 20 GOP Senators to commit political suicide by voting to convict Trump, and that is not going to happen. It just isn't.

This Steyer guy just pisses me off. I get it. He's a billionaire. I'm glad he's a Democrat. I'm glad he supported Democrats during the mid-terms. But he's just wrong if he thinks a Democratic majority in the House is a mandate for impeachment. What it is, is a mandate for affordable healthcare for all, saving Social Security, doing something about climate change and a woman's right to have a safe, legal abortion.

[malaise]

2. Off to the greatest page

Rec

[LBM20]

3. STUPID!! Need 2/3 of the Senate. Don't waste time on this. It would BACKFIRE BIGTIME!

People voted for checks and balances, and for HEALTHCARE, WAGES, JOBS, ROADS AND BRIDGES, and EDUCATION!!

[msongs]

4. self promotion for his presidential plans. nt

[Andy823]

5. Only if

Democrats controlled the Senate or there were enough republicans in the Senate who were brave enough to stand with Democrats, but we don't have control of the Senate, and there sure as hell aren't any republican I could name off hand that would dare to go against the maniac in the WH.

Now if you goes ballistic and loses it, that might be a different story, but almost every republican seems to be afraid of trump for some reason. Could be they are as dirty as trump when it come to Russia!

[calimary]

6. My view is - we HAVE TO impeach.

As of right now, impeachment has been left a tawdry, pathetic joke - by the CONS, of course, who raced to it in the vain hope of removing Bill Clinton from the White House, since they hadn't been able to do it, either time, through the vote of the people. They really did undertake a witch hunt - looking for something, anything, to hang him with. They went through Whitewatergate, Filegate, Travelgate, and every other "-gate" they thought might open up for them. And they FAILED.

So then after four years of searching and allowing Ken Starr to crawl through every underwear drawer either of the Clintons had, and wonder-of-wonders, they finally found a stained blue dress. FOUR YEARS of turning up nothing. FOUR YEARS of that, and untold dozens of millions of taxpayer dollars before they finally found something. And figured out (thanks to one Brett Kavanaugh on offense, thinking up sneaky-ass ways to word dicey questions to get Clinton on the record in some way in which they could hang him.

And all they wound up with was a stained blue dress and a lie about a blow job with a consenting adult. And they hung an impeachment around his neck.

And that's where it's stood. Until now.

Impeachment is supposed to mean something. It's supposed to be a serious and VERY credible undertaking, with serious ramifications, instead of fodder for R-rated jokes on the lips of every late night comedian in showbiz. THAT'S where they left impeachment. As a fucking JOKE. That people laughed at, snickered over, and rolled their eyeballs about from coast-to-coast. Impeachment has to mean something.

So NOW, we actually have a slew of VERY serious, VERY credible, and VERY criminal ACTUAL OFFENSES. Committed or commissioned by someone who is absolutely devoid of all seriousness, credibility, AND any even minimal whiff of innocence. This guy has been a crook all his life. With a small-time but big-ticket crime family on which he built his fame and reputation. Impeachment is a penalty VERY well suited to what trump has done. He's actually earned this. Many times over, if you ask me.

If we do not impeach, then we leave all those crimes - high crimes AND misdemeanors - non-litigated and unpunished. We leave justice EXCEEDINGLY ill-served, if not kicked to the curb outright. We leave the very idea of justice trashed by a guy who's allowed to wipe his muddy track shoes all over it and then spit on it - and then probably shit on it, just outta sheer spite.

Impeachment is a complete, pathetic, and catastrophic JOKE. It needs to be rehabilitated, through a legitimate pursuit of justice - for some VERY real and EXTRAORDINARILY egregious offenses - that I'm guessing Mueller can prove.

trump isn't acting like an innocent man here, anyway. Anyone who's really innocent would say "bring it!" on any investigations, and - um - maybe WILLINGLY sit for 11 straight hours of hostile inquisition from an extremely oppositional House committee or some such thing? trump is ACTING like he's got something to hide. And the harder he works to hide whatever-it-is, the guiltier he looks, and the bigger and more egregious the offense looks, as well.

[calimary]

8. And one other thing - YES the Senate is held by the enemy camp.

YES they'd never vote to convict.

HOWEVER - you'd have a hobbled so-called "pResident" saddled with that black mark on his record for all of recorded history. That monster would have that asterisk by his name forever. LONG after he's gone. I think he's worth that. Other than that, he escapes pretty much free as a bird, with NO consequences attached - that might make some later president hesitate before going so far as to get him/herself into trouble. And there MUST BE penalties for crimes this massive and this widespread.

You'd rather he just get away with it, without being held accountable? Count me out on that one.

[diva77]

13. Agree 100% because it is the right thing to do. It was also the right thing to do when Dubya

started his illegal war. Even without the votes there, at the very least, media coverage, depending on the source, could have acted as a check and balance in the absence of the real checks and balances of government.

Even if we don't achieve removal of the squatting blight that's in the WH now, it will be on the record that the Dems in the House and Senate did the right thing. The corporate media will have no choice but to allot air time to discussion of the reasons for the impeachment.

It was always a given that KKKavanaugh would be confirmed given the corrupt circumstances, yet the resistance prior to the confirmation caused a media uproar that allowed non-rethug voices to be heard and most likely helped in the midterm elections.

[Tarheel_Dem]

9. Independents are against impeachment, and will punish the party responsible for it. It's enough....

for now that we can put the brakes on legislation going forward, but save the impeachment talk at least until Mueller's investigation is completed. There are many ways to "hold Trump accountable" that don't include impeachment.

[Whiskeytide]

11. Impeachment is crazy at this point. We ...

... play right into trump’s conspiracy rantings if we do that. It will consume headlines and valuable man hours that could be better spent working for better policy for people. Don’t give them the argument that we are just trying to get rid of trump. The reality is we CAN’T get rid of him without the senate being on board.

We need to take actions that clearly demonstrate our policy. Place bill after bill before the Republican Senate that clearly and simply provide the things we promised to provide, and let them reject it - or let trump veto it. Don’t attach controversial amendments to simple, plainly worded bills. Work the media for this narrative endlessly.

We can’t be the party that fails to run the government. Make THEM that party. We MUST be the party of responsible government. trump’s irresponsibility makes it easy for us to assume that role - if we’re smart enough to accept that gift.

BUT - also investigate the Hell out of them. All of them. Publicly question witnesses in televised hearings and uncover ALL of the treachery and corruption we can. Push this narrative as well. If trump’ involvement is exposed (as is likely), THEN, and only then, invite McConnel and the Senate to REQUEST impeachment. Make this request repeatedly on the tee vee every chance we get. Make it crystal clear that the ball is in the republican’s court.

Flailing around with meaningless impeachment proceedings - and I’m sorry, that’s what they would be - is political suicidal, and makes US look tribalistic and ineffective. Let’s TAKE the mantle of the adults in the room and run with it.

[BannonsLiver]

12. +1

Plenty of paths to make his life a living hell without impeachment. Pelosi sees this clearly.

[Whiskeytide]

14. I hope so. She's smart. But I'm...

... afraid some of the new faces (and perhaps some of the old hands as well) will push it anyway out of frustration. Nancy may have her work cut out for her keeping everyone on track.

[Small-Axe]

15. Unless there is a massive release of serious evidence by Mueller et al...

that changes the national dynamic dramatically, Tom Steyer is being foolish in my estimation.

His political activism seems self-serving to me and as a way to buy himself a position on the political landscape as a presidential hopeful that is undeserved.

Steyer's methods turn me off.

Nancy Pelosi has my confidence.

Bill