Impeachment was supposed to be the Left’s way to get Donald Trump out of office—not reelect him to it. And yet, weeks into the House’s completely bungled process, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) seems to be doing a better job indicting her party than the man at the eye of this storm.
The Democrats’ have made some terrible political calculations in their time—but forcing their members to go on record Thursday to continue the House’s fake, phony impeachment is a new low even for them. After a month-long “secretive free-for-all,” as Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) put it, with no rules and no legitimate charges, the party is going to try to save face by “authorizing” in public the sham they’ve fanned in private. Why? Because they underestimated the American people, who understand that this isn’t about impeaching the president—it’s about impeaching his agenda.
The original strategy was obvious: “endless hearings, a carefully-targeted series of leaks, and nonstop media discussion of President Trump’s alleged misdeeds.” It was Pelosi’s way, Matthew Walther points out, of “undermin[ing] his presidency,” without putting her party’s vulnerable members on the official record for impeachment. But unfortunately for Democrats, “It turns out that if you want to enjoy all the political benefits of attempting to impeach the president of the United States, sooner or later you actually have to attempt to impeach him.”
And that means, as Congressman Andy Harris (R-Md.) explained to listeners on Tuesday’s “Washington Watch,” an end to these tainted, Soviet-style secret hearings. The American people—regardless of which side they’re on—want an open process. Up to now, any dirt the Democrats think they have is the result of a completely unauthorized inquiry. The House never voted on it. “These weren’t fair hearings,” Harris insisted. “They were one-sided [testimonies], where Republicans are stopped from asking questions, where no counsel is present for the president who is being accused. I’ve made the argument,” he went on, “that if you hold a deposition of someone and don’t allow any defense to be made, then you have to throw that out… [for any] future proceeding.” Instead, Nancy Pelosi wants to legitimize a well that’s already been poisoned. And as far as Republicans and millions of voters are concerned, it’s too late.
As to what, exactly, the Democrats are even impeaching the president for, even liberals don’t know! In the New York Times, even the president’s opponents admit that “disgraceful behavior is not the same as criminal behavior.” Bret Stephens, who openly despises Trump, admits that Democrats “now find themselves in the curious position of trying to convince the country that Trump should be booted from the office to which he was lawfully elected for behavior that, whatever else might be said about it, was not unlawful.” There is no impeachable offense here—not the in phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and certainly not in the two-year, $32 million-dollar Mueller investigation witch hunt.
Adding to the Democrats’ misery (if the House is foolish enough to move forward), the United States actually has a treaty with Ukraine that specifically deals with corruption. It is the only country—out of all 193—that the president is duty-bound to investigate charges like the ones leveled at Hunter Biden. So not only did Donald Trump not do anything wrong, he’s operating under a treaty that supersedes anything else! “It’s against this backdrop,” Adrian Norman argues, “that the now-infamous July phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should be seen for what it was—a perfectly legal and ethical conversation seeking cooperation on an investigation into corruption under a juridical agreement that was forged 21 years prior.”
Disagreeing with the president isn’t grounds for impeaching him. And unfortunately, that’s the precedent this Democratic majority is creating. They disagree with his agenda, Rep. Harris pointed out, but “this should be worrisome for every Americans. Sixty-three million people voted for this president—and 218 members of the House of Representatives are attempting to undo that… and see to it that the American people don’t have a choice in 2020 to re-elect this president. It’s undemocratic. It’s un-American.” And, as Pelosi may find out, it’s an unconvincing reason to give her party two more years as the majority party in the House.