Donald Trump is spiraling out of control
Just recently, Congressional Republicans were throwing every defense of Trump they could think of at the wall in the hope something would stick. After a robust and damning impeachment inquiry torpedoed those defenses, it created an opening for Republicans to prove they have a spine and break from Trump. Instead, Trump’s allies have continued placing party over country and claim that Trump’s bad acts do not warrant impeachment (even though some predecessors have been impeached for far less).
As Congressional Republicans now shed whatever is left of their souls, the guy they’re doing it for is contradicting them. Trump still insists that he acted perfectly, like a bratty child who reflexively shouts his innocence upon getting caught doing something unsavory by a parent or teacher. Yesterday, Trump’s e-mail to supporters soliciting donations to his Articles of Impeachment Defense Fund opened with “I DID NOTHING WRONG.” Apparently, he thinks that putting ridiculous words in all-caps and boldface means there’s simply no disputing he has a winning argument.
In the meantime, the droves of people coming out of the woodwork to support Trump since the impeachment inquiry began are nonexistent. On the contrary, polls show that more Americans think Trump should be impeached and removed. This week’s NATO summit in London proved that America’s allies think Trump is a clown, as foreign leaders sent Trump packing after he discovered they laugh about him privately. Even Trump’s sometimes-boyfriend Kim Jong Un this week threatened to call Trump a “dotard” again. Hundreds of law professors—604 and counting, as of this morning—signed an open letter published yesterday calling for Trump’s impeachment. They noted that Trump’s “conduct is precisely the type of threat to our democracy that the Founders feared when they included the remedy of impeachment in the Constitution.”
The law professors also noted that impeachment is limited to the narrow question of whether Trump’s conduct was constitutional. Impeachment is not about “whether the President committed a crime” and it is not “available for disagreements over policy, even profound ones, nor for extreme distaste for the manner in which the President executes his office.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi similarly told reporters on Thursday that while Trump is a “coward” when it comes to gun violence, while he is “cruel” by failing to help the Dreamers, and while he is “in denial” about climate change, “that’s about the election.”
Despite the overwhelming evidence of Trump’s constitutional violations, conventional wisdom still says that Trump may be impeached but the GOP-led Senate will not remove him. A vote to remove Trump would indeed cement his legacy as a self-obsessed demagogue and portray his presidency as a colossal failure in the history books. However, if the Senate refuses to remove Trump, it would send another profound message — that in the end the Republican Party stands for nothing and is worth even less. Either scenario makes a compelling case for why we should expect a massive blue wave in 2020.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month