"We Have a Criminal in the White House": Behind the Scenes of the House Impeachment Debate
“We Have a Criminal in the White House”: Behind the Scenes of the House Democratic Debate Over an Impeachment Inquiry
Where Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making a political calculation, Judiciary members see it as a matter of duty. (Plus: “The action is in the Committee, and so you want it.”)
Nancy Pelosi remains unmoved when it comes to opening an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, but the ground is shifting under the powerful speaker. As the number of lawmakers in favor balloons—more than 75 House Democrats and one Republican now back an inquiry—the fissures between members who view impeachment as a political calculation and those who frame it as a constitutional duty are coming into starker relief. At the center of this divide is the Judiciary Committee, which would be in charge of trying the case against the president. And, tellingly, 15 of its 24 Democratic members are in favor of opening an impeachment inquiry.
“It’s impossible to evaluate the political component without the politics of it, and I will tell you I am absolutely terrified of another four years of Donald Trump. I think it would be catastrophic for the planet, catastrophic for women, catastrophic for minorities, catastrophic for people with disabilities, catastrophic to our democracy, and the list goes on and on,” said Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, who sits on the committee. “But we have a criminal in the White House who must be held accountable, and if Congress does not hold him accountable, I see that as an absolute abdication of our oath of office.”
Judiciary Committee members account for nearly 20% of House Democrats publicly in favor of an impeachment inquiry. “It’s not surprising that a lot of members of the Judiciary Committee would be among the first to arrive here,” Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and constitutional law professor, told me. “Those of us on the Judiciary Committee have just been much more intensely exposed to the president’s daily obstruction of justice and contemptuous conduct toward Congress.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/06/democrats-house-judiciary-committee-impeachment-inquiry-donald-trump/amp
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They'll open an "inquiry" by September, I bet, once the recess is over. They have to get the courts to make very clear that there is no "absolute privilege" and that executive privilege has to be asserted only on questions, not people. I hope that happens quickly. SCOTUS is going to be a question mark-- there's ample precedent (US v. Nixon), but who knows about his pet justices and the angry Clarence Thomas.
Anyway, once the courts weigh in and subpoenas can be enforced, the hearings will be very interesting and with luck carried live.
It was the live hearings (not the impeachment hearings, but the Senate hearings before) which doomed Nixon, who we should all remember was MUCH more popular than Trump has ever been. It's hard to remember, but he won in 1972 with a historic landslide... and less than 2 years later was forced to resign. (His VP, btw, was also forced earlier to resign on bribery charges.)
It will take awhile, but every day coverage on TV without Trump there blasting everything with his sht-ink (because he won't be in the House chamber) will peel away what support he has among the non-nuts, and then the GOP will start thinking how much easier it would be to have Pence in there than this thug none of them actually like.
Here's my best hope, because I don't want Pence anymore either.
The impeachment inquiry goes on for months with daily TV coverage.
He is found guilty in the House.
There's another couple months where Mitch McConnell acts like an enormous turtle-shaped brick wall ("over my dead body!"
about holding a trial in the Senate.
The GOP primaries happen with historically low turnout because no one wants to vote for Trump. William Weld is on the ballots and draws some votes and talks trash about Trump.
The GOP convention is angry and contentious and Trump makes all sorts of threats to his own party.
He secretly negotiates a deal with Pence (this is probably what Nixon did with his new VP, Ford).
He angrily resigns, swearing vengeance, stomps off to NY.
Melania dumps him.
Pence pardons him immediately. Unfortunately for him, this is right before the 2020 election, and Pence loses to Whoever Democrat.
There's a Blue Wave so big that not even foreign interference can stop the Democrats from winning the Senate too. (Hey, I can dream!)
The state of NY indicts Trump on multiple counts.
Trump flees to Moscow, but Putin has no use for him anymore, and Trump ends up moving from Trump Hotel to Trump Hotel, dodging arrest.
He sneaks into Saudi Arabia, which has no extradition treaty with the US, and blackmails the Crown Prince to let him stay there.
The GOP is a pitiful wounded giant, blaming everyone else for its destruction.
The US slowly and painfully makes its way back to normalcy.
Anyway, in some ways, the best case would be an ugly Trump resignation in a year, and Pence dutifully pardoning him before the election.
