Grassroots pressure plus the media plus Senate Republicans equals impeachment

[EarlG]

All the arguing over whether we should or shouldn’t impeach Trump seems to me to be a bit beside the point right now. If Trump has committed crimes (which he obviously has) and if the Special Counsel can’t indict a sitting president (still up for debate) then the only remedy is impeachment. As we’ve all heard a million times, impeachment begins in the House (which we control) and ends in the Senate (which they control).

What we saw yesterday is clearly just the beginning of a long, steady drip of evidence demonstrating increasingly heinous crimes by the president. There’s still a long way to go before it all comes out, and it’s only going to get worse for Trump.

So far, McConnell and friends have remained incredibly quiet about all of this. But sooner or later, that wall needs to crack. If a few Senate Republicans blink, it will only put additional pressure on others to do the same.

So it seems to me that while the evidence of worse and worse crimes continues to pile up, pressure needs to be simultaneously placed on Senate Republicans.

Are you okay with this crime that the president has committed?

What about this one?

What about this one?

In your opinion, how many felonies should the president be allowed to commit, Senator?

It’s obviously the media’s job to ask these questions, so maybe at the grassroots level, that’s where pressure needs to be applied first. Ask the media:

Where are the Republicans?

Why won’t they speak up about their president’s crimes?

Will they go on the record and say they’re okay with all of this?

It doesn’t matter if they deny all of this at first (as they have been up to this point). This is still a long game. Keep the heat on them every day to tell the world why they’re still okay with propping up an obviously criminal president. Don’t let them run and hide from the biggest political scandal of our time.

[Zoonart]

1. Mittens joins the US Senate in January.

He wants to be president and hates Trump. I look for him to lead the charge from the Senate Rethugs that don't want to go down with the ship.
Just MHO.

[EarlG]

7. Good point

He’s kinda perfectly placed for that role (should he choose to accept it).

[NCjack]

14. Trump must think every day that Mittens will be the new McCain.

[MyOwnPeace]

34. Could it be

a place for Mittens to begin a new campaign for the presidency?
Perhaps he would claim: "I saved our country from IQ45 by helping to push him out and I'm now the best Republican you have!"

In this day and age, NOTHING is too crazy to be possible!

[Cosmocat]

40. Mitt Romney?

He never even remotely has acted in any manner how you just cast him.

Hes going be Mitt Romney,

Milquetoast game show host who passively placates Republican lunacy.

[dalton99a]

2. Beautifully stated.

[cally]

3. I agree. House televised hearings will bring more support for impeachment

from the public. Testimony will eventually reach most die hard Trump supporters who now are relying on Fox News snippets and interpretations.

And don't forget the importance of Dems blowout in November. Plus, new study showing Trump rallies hurt Rep. Senate candidates. Some of the stalwart Republican defenders will start to realize that they can't win re-election if they continue to support and defend Trump.

[dalton99a]

4. +1. 2020 will be about Trump. Let Republicans own the abomination

[mountain grammy]

24. Yes, televised hearings will be a big change

I think it might be the turning point.

[Pluvious]

29. Just wait until Stinky McButtplug TESTIFIES on TV...

Under hostile cross examination, he'll melt like the Wicked Witch in the shower.

[kentuck]

5. How many Republican Senators are up for re-election in 2020?

Make them defend Donald Trump.

[DinahMoeHum]

8. 21 GOP Senators are up for re-election in 2020,.

n/t

[mountain grammy]

31. And the squeal from that red fish better

be the sound of Cory Gardner losing his seat. Colorado is as blue as it's ever been.

[malaise]

6. K & R

I say Susan Collins will blink first but she cannot be trusted

[Chipper Chat]

17. That's the problem.

She always "unblinks"

[EarlG]

19. I don't think Collins is even that important

It won’t be a surprise to anybody if she makes some lame statement of concern because that’s what she always does, it’s pretty much a given at this point. I don’t think that will move the needle at all, especially since she’s up for re-election in 2020 and will probably be facing a stiff challenge. Everybody knows by now that she’ll say whatever happens to be politically expedient at the time.

I’m think that if cracks really start to appear, they’ll have to come from more unexpected quarters. That’s what will make news.

[Chipper Chat]

38. Flake and Corker had their chance.

But they flaked out and it's too late to put the cork back in the bottle.

[Andy823]

9. Well stated

What some here fail to see is what you have just pointed out. We need to see him impeached, and removed from office, not just impeached but still able to stay in the WH allowing him to play the "victim." A lot of posters lately seem to not understand that. Of course maybe they do but divide and conquer is their real agenda!

[Ponietz]

13. 'Congress has to be able to talk impeachment'

—Rep. Joaquin Castro, 12/7/18

We need to have this discussion.
Let’s hold off the disloyalty aspersions, for now.

[Caliman73]

30. I disagree. That is not what EarlG said.

I don't think that people "fail to see" what you stated. People are just at different stages in their desire to see Trump go down. What EarlG laid out is the political strategy for getting the public behind the idea of impeachment and removal.

First, we have to have all of the very clear and easily presentable evidence, which will likely come from Mueller, and from the House's own investigations into Trump's taxes, connections, and various other corrupt activities since he took office. Second is presenting those things to the public in a way that they can understand just how much Trump has damaged the United States. Third is to keep pressure on the Senate so that they either go along with the idea of removing the president or that they are tied inescapably to defending a clearly criminal administration for clearly partisan reasons and they are swept out of office in 2020.

I think that some people are trying to draw parallels between what happened with Bill Clinton. You have to remember that Clinton did not "play the victim". He didn't have to. Republicans started investigating Clinton when he took office and started with Whitewater. They could not find anything there so they moved on, and on, and on, until the Lewinsky situation arose and Bill tried to get cute with language. Most people knew that the entire investigation was only a political show. That is why Republicans paid a price. This situation is very different. The focus has been and continues to be Trump's conspiracy with foreign and domestic entities to gain the presidency and to attempt to use and abuse that power to enrich himself and his family. Many people are still asleep on this issue, but Trump's popularity has not risen in 2 years, when his crimes are exposed publicly through the Mueller investigation and likely House inquiries, people will become more aware of the depth of the problem. Despite Trump's idiotic tweets, only his brainwashed 25% to 30% followers think this is anything but a legit investigation.

I actually agree that Democrats need not rush into "impeachment on day 1" but I don't think that "anything less than removal will be a disaster". Trump is not charismatic and likable like Clinton. The more people see the real Trump the more they dislike him. Plus, this little bubble that the economy has been on because of the tax cut, will be exploding soon, so Trump will not have a "good economy" to protect him.

[Akacia]

10. I have a question.

Would it be easier to get him out of office with the 25th or is impeachment less complicated?

[AlexSFCA]

15. impeachement is better to help unseat gop senators in 2020

[mcar]

11. It is a long game

Those are good questions that Senate Rs should be asked regularly.

I want the investigations to go on, and on. All the co-conspirators need to testify in open hearings so we learn the full story of all their complicity.

[elocs]

12. I'd rather see Trump brought down with a political death of a thousand cuts.

Give him what Ali called a Floyd Patterson humiliation beating with unrelenting and multiple investigations which, along with findings from the Mueller investigation, can bring forth more evidence for a future impeachment that would be beyond question rather than impeach him right out of the gate with the Senate failing to convict and then need to watch Trump crow about how he was found innocent.

I think it would be best to humiliate Trump with a sound electoral defeat at the polls. But watch out for what Trump will do in months after his defeat and before he leaves office because it will be an executive version of what the Republicans are doing in the legislature here in Wisconsin before Walker leaves office.

[elmac]

16. House impeachment, maybe, but the Senate would never go along with it

they wouldn't care is their orange boy committed murder, they would still protect him.

[EarlG]

18. Hence my suggestion that pressure should be applied to Senate Republicans

They weren’t ready to crack yesterday and they’re not ready to crack today, but as the evidence of crimes continues to dribble out, continued applied pressure will make some of them very nervous indeed. You don’t need all of them. Just one or two... at first.

[elmac]

33. I think just an House Impeachment would be well worth it

on record, historical record, of a president being impeached and the shame that brings to the party though I don't think tRump would care, just means a bigger paycheck on his next reality show.

[watoos]

20. It makes no sense to me,

why a sitting president can't be indicted.

Not even if he commits treason, or murder? I'm not buying it.

I bet whatever you want, if Trump were a Democrat there would be no talk about not being able to indict.

[EarlG]

22. Sure

It appears to be absolutely debatable, and I think you’ll see plenty of people making the argument that a sitting president can be indicted. If he is, that changes the whole game. But if he is not, then impeachment is the only remedy.

[MyOwnPeace]

35. Ahem...........

I believe that "debate" would end up in, of all places, the Supreme Court.

How do you think THAT decision would go?

[EarlG]

36. I don't think it's an either/or proposition

If the president gets indicted, impeachment is still on the table, yes?

So let’s say he does get indicted. The indictment is going to publicly lay out all the evidence of crimes that he’s committed. His lawyers will argue he can’t be indicted, it’ll make its way to the Supreme Court, and there’s a good chance they’ll side with Trump.

But politically it’s still devastating. The evidence would all be out there. So the same suggestion still applies — force Republican Senators to go on the record defending Trump’s crimes. Even if the indictments are eventually thrown out by the Supreme Court, by that point you might find not many Senators are willing to go out on a limb for him once impeachment moves through the House.

[MyOwnPeace]

37. I agree........

The "devastation" piles on, as does the time on the clock. The "legal" in-fighting could be stretched out for years, for sure, before it even got to the Supremes. It still all falls on the Senate Republicans and how much backbone they have - how they want to react: support a corrupt criminal to continue their own agenda, or uphold the Constitution as they had sworn to do.
In that regard - not too many have gone out of their way to honor their vows to this point..............

[TxVietVet]

21. I hope tRump's dumbass stays in office

And he clings to power as he goes down. Hopefully, all the conservanazis who love him will be sucked down too.
Look at what the conservanazis are doing in Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina. Destroying democracy to keep power over us.

[calimary]

23. Pressure, people! PRESSURE!

Keep. Up. The. PRESSURE!

AMP. UP. The. Pressure!

[RockRaven]

25. Every Dem Senate candidate running against a GOP incumbent needs to campaign on

their inaction in the face of proven Trump felonies. Either they get pressured into doing something to remove it as a campaign issue, or they defend an indefensible and ridiculous position.

[H2O Man]

26. Exactly.

Recommended.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

27. K & R....nt

[DFW]

28. The key is in your last paragraph: "This is still a long game."

The more CONCRETE evidence we have of wrongdoing, and the more people can be proved to have engaged in it, the more chance an impeachment has of ending up in conviction in the Senate.

If the trial were held today, not one ONE Republican Senator would vote to convict and remove from office. In two months, depending on what is made public, that number could move from zero to two. In six months, that two could increase to five. In nine months, that number could grow exponentially to the magic number needed to remove Trump from office. The indictments would then flow like water off a waterfall.

As Pence would probably be among those indicted, and does not have the honor to resign in time, he could indeed lead to President Pelosi, but that is a pipe dream UNLESS we wait to impeach at such time as the hearings would bring not only the public, but also half the Republican Senators around to accepting that conviction is good for themselves as well as the country.

As we all know, if it's a choice between the country and their re-election, they will sell the country down the river for a torn dollar bill. The key is 20 Republican Senators being convinced that voting to remove from office is good for them AS WELL as for the country. It is the greater hurdle, as I see it.

[eleny]

32. For me, national security is one of the main the issues

Neutering Trump's ability to hurt our country any further is very important.

He has to be stopped or slowed down from weakening our alliances around the world, NATO and the UN, for starters. Domestic issues like endangering our lands and atmosphere are concerns right there along with foreign policy.

He's a menace and has to be stopped or slowed down. Impeachment will help my causes.

[byronius]

39. I think you're right, and it gets worse for them every single day from now on.

At some point this has to break. And if they keep going down this road they're culpable for every bit of it.

I think they'll break.

[llmart]

41. What a terrific post!

We are the grass roots. We need to keep the pressure on the media. We need to put as much effort into this as we put into the mid-terms. Do not let up now. Continue writing your Congresspeople.