A talking head guest appearing 10/9/2019 on The PBS NewsHour outlined a truly chilling concept that might come into play in the Trump impeachment effort. And remember, if one legal consultant is SAYING this on television, there have to be others actually CONSIDERING this concept.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-the-white-house-argues-it-can-reject-the-houses-impeachment-requestsThe concept was referenced while answering a question about remedies available to House Democrats if Trump himself continues to refuse any cooperation with subpoenas from House committees and if his Administration subordinates followed his direction to do the same.
The guest went beyond the current discussion about whether Trump was just refusing cooperation because the House had not taken a formal vote to BEGIN formal impeachment hearings. He reminded viewers that impeachment is a POLITICAL process. Specific steps in the process are SIMILAR to steps in a traditional civil or criminal case and have similar names but impeachment at its core is a purely POLITICAL process.
From that, the guest mentioned that one possibility is that the President could refuse to comply with subpoenas issued by the House entirely and --- as a POLITICAL process -- the House's only recourse would be to vote on articles of impeachment. Essentially, this would negate the normal power of a subpoena, the ability to compel witnesses to testify and the ability to punish those who fail to comply. The process would shift to the Senate to conduct a "trial", but again, THIS ISN'T A CRIMINAL PROCESS. It's purely political. The Senate can do whatever it wants to do because it ultimately comes down to a vote to convict or acquit. If they decide to acquit, that's it. The framers intended this to be a purely political process and it's up to the LEGISLATIVE branch to settle the issue politically. The courts would stay on the sideline.
Of course, that is utter nonsense.
But think about the consequences of that concept if people actually believe it and act upon it.
And there's only 101 people whose opinions matter on this -- 100 people in the Senate and 1 person in the White House. Technically, one could argue there's only 35 people whose opinion matters -- 34 in the Senate who could deny a two thirds vote for conviction and 1 in the White House. And so far, despite everything already public about this President's appalling conduct in office, there appears to be at least 50 Republican Senators out of 53 who haven't batted an eye and would vote for acquittal.
So imagine for a moment
- you occupy the White House
- you face numerous open legal issues stemming from your time in office and before
- you face impeachment from the House
- you have a lifelong track record of contempt for the law
- your legal team is theorizing that impeachment holds zero legal thread unless it results in conviction
- you face virtually zero real threat of conviction with Republican support in the Senate
What would you do?
Would it be that much different than shooting a man in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue?
Would it be that different than the actions Trump has taken over the last week?
While thinking about that, it's worth thinking about the quality of Trump's decision making and who might be left in power with a reinforced sense of ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY. We're not talking about someone setting policies with logical errors in them that turn out to have secondary and tertiary effects that compound over the course of 5-10 years into some big financial or military problem. When Trump does WRONG, he does WRONG in a big way with IMMEDIATE consequences.
Just Sunday, he had a conversation with the President of Turkey and stated the US would remove troops from Syria and would allow Turkey to inject its own forces into Syria to suit its own perceived security needs. People on all sides IMMEDIATELY recoiled in horror at the impacts to Kurdish forces who helped multiple nations defeat ISIS forces who don't get along with Turkey and would immediately come under fire from Turkey. People on all sides IMMEDIATELY recoiled in horror with the recognition that there are over TEN THOUSAND ISIS fighters being held by Kurdish forces who would be released if the Kurds had to begin defending themselves from Turkish fire.
This parlor game of speculation about what the Turks would do, what the Kurds would do, what Trump said and what Trump meant only lasted three days. Three days later, we know what is happening.
Turkey announced movement of troops into Syria today, almost exactly three days to the hour from their leader's call with Trump on Sunday. In other words, in about as much time as it took to gas up the trucks and tanks, Syria took a Trump decision and turned it into additional death and turmoil. And Trump's reaction to concerns about the release of ISIS fighters from Kurdish detention camps?
TRUMP: "Well they are going to be escaping to Europe, that's where they want to go. They want to go back to their homes. But Europe didn't want them for months. They could have had trials, they could have done whatever they wanted, but as usual, it's not reciprocal. ... When President Obama took the PKK, that's a tough deal because that's been a mortal enemy of Turkey. And so when you bring them into a partnership, it's a tough situation. ... They've hated each other for many, many years."
And if you haven't been keeping score, also consider that Trump has 119 different business interests in Turkey, the most of any foreign country.
If Republican supporters of Trump buy into this "purely political" theory of impeachment and act accordingly, that's game, set and match for the rule of law and America. Forty years of seething Nixonian / Republican contempt for the law, the Constitution and anyone that could even potentially keep those who "deserved" to be in power from ever LOSING power will have infected the Republican Party to such an extent that they will have accomplished what bin Laden and one hundred years of Communism only fantasized about... The destruction of America.
WTH
