The Trump fiasco now unfolding has shown the constitution to be a worthless piece of paper .
3
I’m sorry, I thought the Electoral College had already subverted the will of the people. My bad.
44
I suppose it’s worthwhile to continue pointing out the Republicans’ sophistry and hypocrisy and how they happily flout any constitutional norm that doesn’t suit their crass political purposes, but it’s worthwhile only in the sense that it might persuade a few erstwhile Republican voters with a sense of principle to vote a different way. Republican officials, like the ones you site by name in this essay, are beyond persuasion and beyond redemption. The only thing to do with respect to them is vote them out.
33
Absolutism was the unwritten credo of Trump’s career in business and has continued into his presidency. The Orwellian goal of the Trump administration mirrors Fascism; a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy, hallmarked by patriotism, and unquestioning obedience. Mr. Trump seems to embody and glorify many of these traits. We have only to look to his ‘rallies’, his cabinet meetings where extolling his ‘virtues’ is de rigeur, (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/us/politics/trump-boasts-of-record-setting-pace-of-activity.html), his lack of respect for human rights, an admiration of authoritarian leaders (Kim, Putin bin Salman, Erdoğan, Duterte) and their military parades, and his insistence that as President he can do as he pleases. It is time to curtail this very dangerous man’s ambitions; the Republicans have to be held responsible if he is allowed to continue unchecked.
33
America is essentially non existent when the people in our government are “above the law”.
Trump is essentially a mobster, not a president.
When Senators are comfortable with not taking their oath seriously, it’s over.
An insincere oath is not an oath at all, and that oath is all that makes America viable.
Swearing an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and swearing an oath to be an impartial juror are there for a reason.
They mean what they say.
America Can not exist if that oath is not genuine and taken seriously.
The stain of this betrayal will be indelible.
It can not be erased, even if the destruction of America is successful.
47
At this point the game is about next November. Congress will play it (the impeachment trial) out with passion and vigor until Trump's acquittal; then the much more important phase will commence. There is just one thing that will matter most... Voter turnout. A very high turnout of voters will equal a defeat for Trump. Watch as he and his party try mightily to discourage voter turnout in targeted areas. The electorate must frustrate them by turning out no matter what. History will then take a new turn.
End the nightmare.
20
An odd mixture of Bruno's strongest logic and weakest in one editorial. +Strong on pointing out the our Republic has lasted so long because the Founders limited direct democracy to half of one branch of the government. -Strong on nonetheless trotting out the electoral vs popular vote issue. +Weak on holding the midterm as evidence of a voters' change of heart (how about 2010, then 2012?). In the end, this editorial reminds me a great deal of the entire "here, there, and everywhere" House impeachment campaign.
1
2020 will be a referendum on America. I grew up loving America but I am not an American and I don't care if there is one America, two Americas or many Americas but desperately hope the dispute can be settled at a discussion table not a battlefield.
The vote will not inform us if there is a better solution than one deeply divided country or any of an infinite number of solutions that are arrived at where citizens don't share common first principles.
8
“'If the framers thought impeachment in an election year was a bad idea, they could have set things up differently,'” noted Jill Lepore, a Harvard history professor and the author of the 2018 book “These Truths: A History of the United States.”
I don't think that I would start off supporting my argument against the villainous Republicans by quoting a Harvard professor. Any reader just noting the "Harvard" would know what to expect.
This state, this home to self-righteousness, never compromises its values, even when the third of three philandering brothers from a unjustly wealthy family actually causes the death of one of his young victims, and then runs away from the site while there was a chance that the young woman could still be breathing inside an air bubble.
But I digress. Eight paragraphs of Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution deal with the election of the President by the people. Thirty one words constitute the last Section of this Article. It is woefully inadequate in furnishing help to anyone wanting to remove the President from office.
One cannot presume that the framers (i.e. Madison) would have added anything to this clause since it was apparently just an afterthought.
But whether the Senate should decide for or against using the election as an argument against impeachment, should we come much closer to the date of the election with no decision, the voters will say, as the polls are already recording, "Why not just leave it up to the election."
Has anyone really looked at what would happen if everyone voted ? Not sure gerrymandering would help as much as people think .. and since it is based on very small margins in some places, to pump up number of GOP seats (excluding well Maryland), it would seem that say if women, sickened by policies that are against their families interests and their values, would just go vote for good people .. things would change.
11
McConnell and GOP senators: Let's not act until November. That will give president Trump and Putin sufficient time to interfere in our election, once again, and ensure a Trump victory.
17
First, the argument about nullifying the 2016 is inane. If this is so, then Trump seeks to nullify the 2018 election in which the American public voted for representatives that would check him as a co-equal branch, Congress. Congressional elections matter as much as Presidential elections. By evading accountability, Trump is trying to reverse the 2018 election.
Second, if the Senate does not affirm the Second Article of Impeachment regarding obstruction of Congress, it is neutering itself. The power of Congress to investigate and subpoena is the essence of checks and balances on Executive power. This is a precedent that will a Constitutional disaster for effective governance going forward.
The latter is a Constitutional principle that can't wait for voters input in November. That is the urgency of Impeachment, in addition to Trump's attempt to meddle in the election, the former.
In effect, the Access Hollywood tape foreshadowed Trump's attempt to do a power grab of Congress' privates, reducing it to a eunuch. Will the Senate tolerate the assault?
19
FISA, dossiers, surveillance, Mueller, impeachment....
We have never had a single person give tangible reasons why they have repeatedly tried to remove Donald Trump since the day he became the R candidate?
Is it simply because he could and did defeat Hillary Clinton?
Is it because he is not an insider life-long politician?
Is it because he is thought to be “evil” whatever that means.
Is it because he threatens the comfort of the status quo of the elites and bureaucrats?
Is it because his successes could prove 35 years of Establishment solutions have been wrong?
Is it because they need to follow the crowd?
To heal our division it is very important for all of us to hear the real reason.
2
@Dr. John - The real reason is that Donald Trump has abused his office. It's really that simple.
30
@Dr. John
Here are the "tangible reasons" to remove Trump: He is corrupt, clueless, crude and compromised.
Oh, and he extorted a foreign power for his personal, political benefit threatening our democratic election process.
36
Trump said the truth of his administration at the very beginning. He said he could shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue and he would not be arrested and he still would be elected. What he did with Ukraine is the equivalent and he will be reelected. Those voters have lost their way and are trashing our Democracy with no thought for the consequences.
9
Thank you for calling out the absurdity and hypocrisy of this Republican argument.
A corollary to this is the accusation that Democrats are trying to reverse the results of the 2016 election. This, too, is incorrect. Nobody is trying to undo the election. Trump won and took office—that is accepted. What is happening now is a response to actions he took as president. He is being held accountable for an abuse of power. Removal from office would not be a reversal of the 2016 election but rather a consequence of his own decisions, that he made while in power as an elected official.
17
Note this is the third argument by President Trump and his people have presented for why we should not remove him from office. The first was that he didn't do anything - "No quid pro quo." The second, relatively recent argument was, "Well, yes, he DID do something, but it wasn't that big a deal, and certainly not a reason to throw a president out of office."
Actually, I kind of liked that second argument, because it reduces the whole thing to a relative rather than an absolute, and it gives the Republican senators who were already planning to side with President Trump enough cover. So I'm scratching my head as to why Trump and his guys feel they need this latest shift. One problem is it reopens the door to the question of whether he did something really bad, and they’re only arguing that the case should be tried in a different court, this fall's election.
And one more problem. These guys must have been passing notes in eighth grade civics. If settling things at the next election is always how we should go, then why did our founders even put the possibility of impeachment and removal from office in the Constitution?
But it's a losing game. Trump never was going to be removed, and he always was ultimately going to be judged in the fall election anyway. I hope these shenanigans will turn off even a few voters, and so help prevent a repeat of his 2016 razor-thin victory.
11
I wish I could add the laugh track at full volume every time a Republican Senator makes one of these crazy defence points in favor of President Trump. The complaints about hearsay, when all the witnesses and documents have been blocked. The comlaints about waiting till the next election, when he has used the power of his office to subvert the next election. The complaint of letting the courts dedide, when doing that would take years to resolve.. The complaint about rushing the impeachment. when they are rushing the trial.etc.etc.etc.
It would be just the same as a sitcom comedy, that is, not funny at all, just the recorded sound of people laughing, people who once laughed while they were yet alive.
9
If only the voters mattered, we'd have President Clinton by 3 million votes. The impeachment clause was put into the Constitution to cover what happens AFTER the president has been elected. It was also intended that he not have a totally free ride for 4 years to the next election.
15
I don't think the Republicans actually believe a lot of what they say, whether about impeachment, taxes, deregulation, Supreme Court nominations, or anything -- even guns. For as little as I think of them, they're not that stupid.
But they think the American public IS that stupid, and insomuch as a lot of these awful specimens keep being re-elected to their seats in Congress, they're correct. Not everyone has to buy what they're selling -- just enough voters to keep them on the public payroll. So the task at hand isn't to argue with the purveyors of these lame, illogical arguments. It's to convince their eager customers that they're being had.
10
All this speaks to turning over the Senate in 2020 and getting rid of Moscow Mitch, period. They are traitors who are fearful of our dictator Trump.
12
Just like Cohen was dragged down by Trump, and then left to rot, the Republican party is being pulled into the abyss. No matter what the outcome, it ain't gonna be pretty.
9
The raw anger directed at this president is hard to take. Let me remind you, we live in a democracy. If you don't like the president, there is always an election. That spells D-E-M-O-C-R-A-C-Y. Heck, I lived with Obama for 8 years, I have suffered MUCH more than you, but I made it. I never advocated for the overthrow of the government.
Take a chill pill, Frank.
2
@TravelingProfessor We also have Rule of Law in America.
14
I do not understand how they take the head on a pike as anything but a threat and jury tampering. They know he is vindictive and they accept the fear he creates. They can retire (most of them should and have the means, so why don’t they?); they can get other jobs (they now have more connections than the typical American); they can write (or ghost write). Why oh why do the need this threat? Why do they want to remain in Trump’s vice? Because they agree with him and his policies. They admire him. They are just as corrupt. And his followers. Same. Exactly the same. Some people are mean and cruel and jealous and vindictive. They like to hide behind Jesus’s robe and pretend they are good.
10
It's an outrage to place your logical extension of a Republican dastardly act in a column. It causes all loyal Republickers to be miffed. How dare you! In truth the only reason any excuses for Trump's behavior or for not following some sacred oath forced on the Senators by the old-fashioned Constitution is simply to be able to ignore logic.
This is a show trial with a difference- the defense is on the side of evil
6
No. I think this is the lamest:
The Republican refusal to allow Senate trial witnesses, rests on the premise that the House Democrats erred when they did not sue to enforce the subpoenas they issued for the first hand witnesses and documents. And so, because the House Democrats were incompetent in their impeachment role, the Republican controlled Senate will not fulfill their own duty to hold an actual trial that will reveal the truth..
Incompetence doubled, is not what America deserves; It does not address the questions that must be answered in a free nation, and it hides the truth from the American people.
The Republican approach, that ostensibly seeks to punish House Democrats for their incompetence, actually punishes every American citizen by obstructing knowledge of the facts that every citizen, regardless of party, has the right to know, especially when an election is in the balance.
8
I'm sorry, but "to protect themselves from his (Trump's) wrath"?
Boot him out, and the only wrath will be "get off of my lawn" somewhere down in Florida.
And his base will be fine. Sure they 'like' Trump, but the next one will do just as well.
5
It is the most illogical argument as well. If someone loses an election, they by definition are not subject to impeachment; therefore, any President or other person who is impeached has been elected.
3
If the people were so important then they should observe that Trump lost in the popular vote and do their job to hold him to account.
4
If we were to go by voting then he’d be out of office already. He lost the popular vote three years ago. The constituents have already spoken until the next election.
6
Yep. I can't imagine that I am the only Dem who voted in the midterms to put a check on Trump. I didn't like his attack on Obamacare, immigrants, the environment, nor his tax plan (and so, so much else) and I certainly don't want him using my tax dollars as leverage to get a foreign country to meddle in the 2020 election.
Senator Jones of Alabama, I hope you are listening to the people who put you in office.
22
At one time this was called situational ethics, that is, one makes up the rules as the situation dictates. It's clear that Republicans just make it up as they go, asserting norms that suit their purposes, trying to make us believe that these are the agreed upon rules and we should all be good citizens and go along with their rules of the day as if they were etched in stone. It's the Republicans who are failing the citizenship test, every day.
14
ikalbertus, I think you do a disservice to Joseph Fletcher (author of the 1966 book Situation Ethics: The New Morality). His work, which I think very wise, and those of similar-minded people is nothing like that you describe.
1
So the Watergate hearings were illegitimate? Get real!
4
Threatening a federal official is a Class C or D felony, usually carrying maximum penalties of 5 or 10 years under 18 U.S.C. This is yet another prosecuteable offense with which this President* can and should be charged. If he will not be charged during his presidency, he most certainly shall when that presidency ends. There is nothing that will prevent this. There is no manipulation, no cheating, no pay-off, no lie which will prevent the inevitable. The President*, lost in his dementia fears this the most of all things. There is nothing which will prevent it.
14
Trump thinks like an autocrat. He truly seems to believe it's up to him whether or not he can be impeached, as ludicrous as that is.
21
He thinks that because he was born into money he’s more virtuous than the rest of us. His kids inherited that trait too.
8
Wait -- are you saying that Republicans are hypocrites?
The GOP resorts to defense via nonsense because there is no alternative defense. The sickening thing is that so few (none?) of them has the courage to do the right thing and reject this corrupt and incorrigible president.
12
I don't think the Republicans actually believe a lot of what they say, whether about impeachment, taxes, deregulation, Supreme Court nominations, or anything -- even guns. For as little as I think of them, they're not that stupid.
But they think the American public IS that stupid, and in that a lot of these awful specimens keep being re-elected to their seats in Congress, they're correct. Not everyone has to buy what they're selling -- just enough voters to keep them on the payroll. So the task at hand isn't to argue with the purveyors of these lame, illogical arguments. It's to convince their eager customers that they're being had.
10
SHould we move the election 6 months ahead.
7
Frank is right about Trump's defenses being the lamest.
Equally lame was the nigh-endess offenses of Team Pelosi, Schiff and Schurmer.
Lame (as in -duck) is what our Congress has become to the detriment of those they serve...
1
Among Nancy Pelosi’s many virtues: she reduces Trumpists (and Trump, of course) to spluttering incoherence.
14
@Lake. woebegoner
"Offenses" of Pelosi, Schiff, Schumer? Really?
5
Come on nyt! Get “lame” as a negative signifier out of your articles! As a pediatrician who cares for disabled children with amazing intelligence, creativity, and full lives, I know that it really should go!
6
I don't think the Republicans actually believe a lot of what they say, whether about impeachment, taxes, deregulation, Supreme Court nominations, or anything -- even guns. For as little as I think of them, they're not that stupid.
But they think the American public IS that stupid, and insomuch as a lot of these awful specimens keep being re-elected to their seats in Congress, they're correct. Not everyone has to buy what they're selling -- just enough voters to keep them on the public payroll. So the task at hand isn't to argue with the purveyors of these lame, illogical arguments. It's to convince their eager customers that they're being had.
2
Trump has been lame all of his life -- a second/third rater being represented by second/third raters using a lame excuse.
Sort of like not being able to serve during the Vietnam War due to "bone spurs." Lame.
7
Ah, the Electoral College. Perhaps if we wish to retain this antiquated institution, we should choose electors who aren't elderly white men with Viagra prescriptions who wish, still, to exert their tiny and ever-diminishing power over others. But it's past time to sweep out the detritus and get on with it.
12
Republican senators and WH defense team should be ashamed of themselves. They want to turn this significant event into a dumb show with no moral underpinnings and no idealistic belief in freedom. The contempt they hold us in is appalling. They make us all look like geniuses! They’ve got to go.
7
The question I have right now is about Lev Parnov. He just happened to tape his conversation about him telling Trump that the Ukrainian ambassador was going around telling that Trump would be impeached, bet he was told to tell Trump that and tape his reaction. Then Trump reacted as he always does, incriminating himself. Lev must have had his orders, what do you want to bet a lot more is going to come out showing Trump with his foot in his mouth. Someone is trying to tell Trump he needs to stay in line or else...
4
The Secret Service should be horrified that anyone was able to tape the president like that.
And so much for Donald’s lies that he didn’t know the guy.
5
And Trump will still be acquitted
3
Removing Trump from office is the highest form of democracy.
The world will rejoice, and america will be temporarily cleansed.
10
In my humble opinion of as a whole apolitical, yet progressive liberal of the center, three modes of Trump's comportement are the nessessary and suffient reasons, all fulfilled, for his impeachment:
1. His coarse and rude language.
2. His devouring of cheeseburgers held in the hands.
3. His contempt of dress code in wearing an open, not buttoned, coat and an extra-long tie.
Enough is enough.
3
The flagrant lies are are beyond comprehension. "I never met this person. I take thousands of pictures with people I don't know." And then the video. Dinner at a private room with the president and Lev Parnas and Furman. In a court of law perjury would be at the top of the list of trump's lies about ever knowing these two men. But this is the lying republican Senate who, see no evil. But I'm sure the Southern District courts do. They see lots of evil.
And look who else was their Donny Jr. and company. Nice tie.
7
Well, your honor, my client did go into the bank. He was wearing a mask. He did have a gun. He did demand money from the teller. But the alarm went off before he got any cash, so there was no crime.
15
McConnell when asked if another Supreme Court seat became vacant leading up to the election he would follow the "Garland" precedent and wait for the election results, he replied "no, I'd fill it in a heart beat" (or something to that effect). So much for waiting for the voters to decide! Such hypocrisy knows no bounds! Time for the American voters to call out McConnell and all of the Republicans for their lack of ethics. Vote Dem across the board!
13
Just to reinforce the picture of Trump as a mob boss, he felt compelled to threaten Adam Schiff via Twitter. What a sad bunch the Republican Senators are, falling over themselves to admire his every word and deed. Message to DJT -- get the propaganda machine into high gear using any government resource you can muster. We see nothing, but your noble efforts to expose the corruption of all your opponents.
7
By his (and, it now seems, Pompeo’s) playbook, the lamer the better. It is what works with the audience he is speaking to. But, caveat emptor, your welfare is merely a passing glance on his radar. He is playing you like a [fill in the blank].
5
There once was a lying, cheating, Republican president who got re-elected in a landslide. The only reason he didn't get impeached was that he resigned before Congress had a chance.
5
Makes me wonder why the failure of the Senate to not act on Garland’s nomination was not taken to the judiciary.
The Senate may be the world’s greatest deliberative body, but not when they don’t deliberate.
7
I agree with the opinion expressed. And I also believe that Pelosi and other Demos who excused themselves from an impeachment inquiry decision should be ashamed of themselves for delaying and delaying the decision until September, during that time and even after she finally relented last September, the donald ‘s behavior became worse. What is really unbelievable is that Pelosi and her supporting other Demos couldn’t see that the Emoluments violation of DJT was the most provable Article Of Impeachment that they could have proposed and could have obtained Donald’s removal but either by ignorance, lack of courage, or a combination thereof, they didn’t. Now that Trump is going to be acquitted, the fact that they pelosi et al. ignored the Emoluments violation speaks volumes for trump and for the future. All because Pelosi failed to be a leader and instead excused her miscue by claiming the public was not ready.
1
@Sam Cacas
If the Senate won't convict with this evidence, they wouldn't with emoluments, either. The public cares even less about his violations of emoluments law than his violations of election law (or any other law.)
6
You're distorting the argument. The argument is that the voters should be deciding the political question of who is president. The legislature doesn't have a vote of no confidence to kick out the president. But that's what happens with impeachment without a crime.
I know, there's plenty in the legislative history of the Constitution to support the argument that impeachment doesn't require a crime. But impeachment should require a crime. Otherwise, politics and criminal justice must mix, and they are immiscible.
We should avoid following Israel, Brazil, South Korea and others down the road of using criminal law as a political weapon. Bill Clinton's impeachment. Hillary Clinton's email investigation. The Mueller investigation of Donald Trump. Now Donald Trump's impeachment. All were steps too far down that road.
We have never used bills of attainder or made any conduct criminal only after the fact. Impeachment and trial by a legislature is close to doing that. Too close.
Impeachment is an archaic procedure adopted by the British parliament in the Middle Ages and abandoned there more than 200 years ago. We should make it obsolete here as well. Shame on both Republicans in 1998 and Democrats in 2019 for abusing a criminal procedure for political gain.
Absent a crime -- a serious crime like treason or bribery -- the voters should decide who is president, not Congress.
1
@John Smithson
The Electoral College voted for Pence too, did they not?
2
I’d say blackmailing another country by holding already approved desperately needed military aid to help oneself politically IS a serious crime.
6
The Democrats are losing. They are not going to get rid of Trump, they are not going to get witnesses.
There is only one person at this point who might be able to turn the tide: Joe Biden.
Mr. Biden should call a news conference and announce that he and his son would be willing to testify in exchange for having John Bolton and whoever else the Democrats want to testify as well. This Ukraine affair is going to dog Biden especially if he becomes the nominee. Let him put himself on national TV answering questions from Trump’s lawyers once and for all. If he is clean, then he will be rid of this stain forever and perhaps Bolton and the rest might say something that would sink Trump. If the Republicans refuse then they clearly are hiding something.
Think about it.
3
The argument you're making, Frank, can be more simply put thusly: When Trump was elected President in 2016, the voters did not know what manner of President he would be. Now the voters know. He had no legislative history, or any history in a governmental capacity, at all. Now we know.
Voters rolled the dice with Trump. Now we know, as do the legislators whose job it is to check, by the means of impeachment, his obviously lawless and corrupt actions.
3
audiosearch, your point is weakened by the fact that many people think that the president is doing a good job. Indeed, almost half the House thinks so. And about half of the country.
But most importantly, more than half of the Senate appears to think so. So the president is not going to be removed from office. He may, even, be re-elected. I know I'll vote for him.
3
Keep dreaming! Trump won the 2016 election. He has accomplished lot of the economic agenda the democrats wanted but could not get it done as the GOP would not let them. In a way the Trojan Horse trump twisted the GOP arms until they obliged and got it done. Except that trojan horses have a hidden agenda while Trump campaigned openly for it. Bernie and his supporters should be applauding Trump. But thats not how it works in politics.
1
What he has accomplished is tax cuts for the wealthy. That is not what Democrats want.
6
It's always troubled me that the president is also head of the party. That seems almost an invitation to meddle in things that could enhance the chances for the president's party in the next election, whether it's to benefit the president or other party candidates. It's also, to me, a terrible conflict of interest, since the president owes the same duty to all of us, without favoritism.
1
Penn, the president is not the head of the party.
wait a sec - you have to be elected president before you can be impeached. and impeachment is a punishment for high crimes and misdemeanors - not a reversal of the vote. and didn't the president handily LOSE the popular? but won because of the electoral college.
the lamest part is the disdain, dear, and whatever the republicans in the senate are displaying.
i'm sure that if the president on trial was not a republican, they would all rightly be out for blood if that president had taken the same actions as trump.
so why isn't what's good for one not sufficient to remove the other?
basically, it's sickening and deranged. i don't know that i'll ever recover.
it is up to all of us as voting citizens to remedy the situation come november.
defeat trump. defeat every person in congress who has violated the oath of office. furthermore, remove every senator that perjured himself/herself when swearing the oath to act impartially in the impeachment trial.
2
Of course, the same argument would have sent the Senate into hibernation as soon as McConnell refused to consider Merrick Garland...
4
Question: so why are Republican members of the Senate planning not to call witnesses and acquit Donald Trump.
Answer: To protect themselves from having to apply for welfare benefits, unemployment compensation and food stamps.
5
Question: so why are Republican members of the Senate planning not to call witnesses and acquit Donald Trump.
Answer: To protect themselves from having to apply for welfare benefits, unemployment compensation and food stamps.
1
One person, one vote. Somehow hasn’t created your “utopia” in the rest of the world.
Really good article, but a bit late as Mitch McConnell held up Obama's judicial appointments among many other obstructionist ploys.
3
For anyone trying to rig their re-election, as Donald Trump was caught red-handed trying to do, immediate removal is the appropriate remedy. That’s what impeachment is for. That Trump broke at least two laws in the process by violating the Congressional Impoundment Act as well as the law saying he “shall” report all “urgent“ whistleblower complaints to Congress only adds to the need for his immediate removal from office. The Republicans fear of his retribution is not just a profile in cowardice, but also a massive political miscalculation that guarantees the ultimate retribution by the voters this November. To paraphrase Adam Schiff, their failure to do what is “right” means that “they are lost.”
6
Republicans sharing "arguments" is the only kindness on offer. In Trump's second and third terms there will be no need for "arguments," because Republicans will feel no need to acknowledge or justify any of their actions or inactions.
3
Fine, informative, spot on. Except,Frank, your last comment about the framers possibly laughing. They would have wept, I think, and not tears of laughter.
4
If the Senate goes into recess until next January, their paychecks should be docked until then.
We pay their salaries. Why should we pay when they refuse to work?
2
What is alarmingly clear here is the need for impeachment reform. When politics "trumps" truth through obstruction, something is wrong with the process. An impeachment process that can possibly disallow evidence and witnesses is of little value.
4
In 2016 the Republicans swept the elections-they controlled the House the Senate and the Presidency.Instead of addressing serious problems like Health Care and Climate change , they decided to pass a huge tax break for corporations and the wealthy.For two years they had a golden opportunity to serve the American people.They did not do that so the head of their party, Trump, is reduced to looking for favors from foreign nations so he can beat up on a potential opponent.He cannot brag about the great health care he passed , he has done nothing but embarrass and alarm voters so has to resort to dirty tactics to diminish any opponent he faces in 2020.The American way is to win over voters, not to sully your opponent and if really desperate get help from Russia and its KGB.
8
Maybe we as an electorate will get it right this next time and see all of this for what it is. Just VOTE so our representative government becomes just that.
4
It all boils down to the rich banding together to keep their power. Why would they like democracy if it threatens their individual power?
The real question is why the average voter does not see that all their power is being taken away by the same people they vote for?
They will get no abortions, no gay marriage, but lose health care, the homes, their ability to afford college, lose their clean water, lose a clean environment and inherit a police state to keep them in place.
11
I eagerly await knowing who the Democratic nominee for president will be so I can contribute to his/her campaign and supporting PACs to the highest limit allowed by law and my pocketbook.
12
Only the Framers know whether they would have laughed
at what is going on in Congress and the Presidency.
Mr. Bruni you should read more American History for your
theory does not explain why:
Washington called out the Militia to crush the
'Whiskey Rebellion' though the Farmers leading it
were asking nothing more than what they had been
told were their In-Alienable Rights in the
Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson and Madison wrangled over
"Lame Duck" Presidential appointments.
How Jefferson carried out the
Louisiana Purchase without fully consulting Congress
How the Federalists tried their best to curb anti-Federalist Newspapers - the Sedition Acts.
How Jackson utterly ignored the Supreme Court rulings
concerning forcing Native Peoples off their lands and violating
treaties.
How Lincoln ignored Supreme Court rulings and Habeas Corpus.
How Wilson misled the country into entering World War I.
How FDR misled the country into entering World War II
How Truman carried out War in Korea without a Congressional
Declaration of War.
How LBJ carried out War in Vietnam without a Congressional
Declaration of War.
How Bush I & II and Obama have waged an endless war in the Mideast without a formal declaration of War.
Newspapers used to report on Monday what Bills
Congress passed the previous Week if faraway Washington, D.C.
Now we know what goes on in DC 24/7.
Perhaps letting the Voters decide what to do about Trump,
come November, is best for the United States of America.
5
It is kind of difficult to go against Trump when he doing everything the GOP want like tax breaks to the rich, easing up on environmental issues for businesses or allowing our finances institutions more leeway or back to what cause our last financial disaster for just a few examples. Trumps lies about who paying for the wall or even that cheaper healthcare insurance with cheaper prescriptions hasn’t seemed to lost any of his voters. Even now a Born again religious person he has become. Who believes that is beyond me.
10
The voters sent trump packing in the 2016 election, but the EC sent him to Washington.
10
"Only the voters can send the president packing? That’s a joke."
I am afraid the joke is on you/us/anyone that believes he should be convicted and removed from office based on the facts, and then eventually it will be on those that acquitted or enabled him.
He is winning in his diabolical schemes, whether the winning the impeachment challenge or filling his administration with yes-people who are beginning to act like him, and then laughs or goads in the faces of those who criticize or oppose him through his and his enablers' projection statements.
I will have to outrage another day, today I am feeling quite discouraged.
7
Congress on recess until the voters decide because an election for president is only 9 months away. Why not just go full monty and suspend Congress indefinitely? I'm sure that would fit into President for Life Trump's plan. Dump the the whole president thing and give him what he really dreams of King Donald.
1
I’m not sure Republican senators are afraid of 45. They have power, they can stack the courts, hobble the government, pass ridiculous tax cuts and hollow out regulation. That’s the aim.
7
They are afraid of his base, which they need to keep their seats.
1
Mr. Bruni:
The hypocrisy of your column is only surpassed by the sheer number of them.
You've been trying to get rid of Mr. Trump for three years. . .for any and every reason imaginable.
Just for the record please count them up. When Mr. Trump is re-elected perhaps you'll consider the time you've put into this. . .and put more effort over the next four year cycle commenting on issues of importance to the country rather than on what appears to be your own personal dislike for the individual rather than what he's accomplished.
1
If it is always wrong to “overrule” an election, then impeachment is always wrong. But, the Constitution provides for impeachment.
Just more GOP nonsense.
4
Orwell: we can not put faith into the idea that the law shall protect.
Trump: big smirk and nation handed to Putin.
4
Democrats didn’t subvert the election, the culprits responsible for that crime were Paul Manafort and Putin.
Manafort’s delivery of Leon Podesta’s analytics ( similar to a quarterbacks playbook) opened the door for Russia’s tech experts to tamper with the final vote tallies with electoral college importance.
Who do you think sent Manafort to run his ‘ campaign’? The same people that sent Manafort to run campaigns in the Ukraine. Russia Russia Russia all roads lead to Trumps friends in Russia!
7
The “people’s will” was subverted when the electoral college granted the presidency to Donald Trump despite the majority of voters electing Hillary Clinton. How is impeachment any different?
3
I think it's fascinating that so many of the GOP senators who proudly support Donald Trump are from former slave states.
10
If the defense is doing such a lousy job why are the Democrats so upset and worried?
1
Why?? Because in spite of all the evidence so far the Senate will allow no documents or witnesses in the trial and they will vote to acquit Trump. Because they are not doing their job to defend and uphold the constitution. That’s why.
5
Perhaps because of the bald faced lying they they are doing?
4
Maybe that’s because the supposedly impartial jurors of the Senate have already made up their minds.
Why are the republicans so afraid of actual witnesses and documents?
5
The half-truths, denials, excuses, and sophistries of the Republican lawyers on Saturday could well be considered treasonous activity. Schiff laid it out clearly: if the president's effort to hold back a promised $400 million in military aid until the Ukrainian president agreed to slime his major competitor is not impeachable, what is? And if (when) the slavish Trump minions refuse to remove him from office--despite his increasingly reckless actions and statements that endanger our national security--they are aiding and abetting his destructiveness and increasing the chances for further corruption in the future. Or can they truly be so blind to reality?
4
Democrats won't win the election. That's why they are pushing impeachment so hard.
1
Hey you can say this as long as next time a Dem in President and pulls dirty tricks, like trying to get a foreign power to smear an opponent, swear you’ll be OK with that.
3
@Brian Whistler
The Republicans in the Senate apparently don't think there will ever again be a Democratic President.
1
The exhaustion over this horrific administration, its cult-like defenders and the unqualified, unfit and increasingly unhinged "president" could result in such a feeling of helplessness that trump emerges the winner in November. I hope the fear of that happening is enough to make us vote [to defeat him] in such numbers that trump and his lackeys won't have the audacity to question it.
4
President Trump is guilty. He stole the election out from under Hillary Clinton. For that serious crime, he should be impeached and removed from office.
2
For the GOP senators in particular to treat the impeachment process with so little respect that it requires fidget spinners, food, naps, chocolate, crossword puzzles and a reported paper airplane (Rand Paul), shows how low they have brought this country and its institutions. Compare their behavior with the physical and mental stamina displayed by Hilary Clinton during her 11 hour Benghazi grilling and weep.
The Republican senators aren’t interested in the will of the people- for them the impeachment is a pre-determined joke and the American people are just the “punchline.”
4
The problems with the US Constitution are tied to the federal accommodations to optional state level slavery which were left in place after the Civil War.
2
The etymology of “impeach” means to hinder or impede, and that sums up the Democratic impeachment strategy. Nice try.
The etymology of impeach, in modern usage, is not “to hinder or impede” as stated.
According to current Merriam-Webster entries, “impeach” takes the following definitions:
“1 a : to charge with a crime or misdemeanor; specifically : to charge (a public official) before a competent tribunal with misconduct in office
b : to remove from office especially for misconduct
c : to bring an accusation against
2 : to cast doubt on; especially : to challenge the credibility or validity of - [e.g.] impeach the testimony of a witness”
1
You make such great points here. Of course the most outrageous part of the argument to "just let the voters decide", is the fact that HE IS CHEATING IN THAT VERY SAME ELECTION. How on earth are you supposed to step back and allow an election to roll along to whatever fateful end when the most powerful person in the world, (who also happens to be a sociopath who cares only about winning) is using that same power to ensure the outcome he wants for himself. Seriously? These are insane times.
3
The voters spoke.
Trump was elected.
Trump abused his power.
The senate now gets to speak.
Unfortunately the majority of senators are traitors to the constitution.
Parties now rule.
Our country is broken.
10
Is McConnell channeling himself circa 2016 when the Senate did not bother to review / vote on any Obama SCOTUS appointees because an election is coming up?
2
What bothers me the most is the complaint by some Senators about how BORING this hearing is. Reading a book? Texting? If any juror in the normal world tried that I'm sure the judge would have some thoughts and words.
I am so sorry you senators have to sit through a 12 hour day. However when you complain about it you just sound like entitled brats.
Try cleaning hotel rooms. How about landscaping? How about holding down 2 or 3 jobs just to make ends meet? Senators need a reality check this November.
8
"Pat Cipollone, one of the president’s lawyers, added: 'No one ever thought that it would be a good idea for our country ... to try to remove a president from a ballot ... ' "
Mr. Cippollone does not seem overly constrained by facts:
"White House counsel Pat Cipollone lied during the Senate impeachment trial when he said Republicans were not allowed in the secure briefing room during House impeachment hearings. Confronted by this blatant untruth, one of Trump’s lawyers, Robert Ray, declared, 'I’m not interested in wading in the procedural weeds here.' ... Some senator should send a note up to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asking him to admonish Cipollone.” (Washington Post 23Jan2020)
4
Never in all my 80 years have I realised the extent and depth of corruption in American politics. Republican leaders, congresspersons and senators - and the «lawyers» who speak for them - are clearly prepared to spew out any blatant lie, distortion or pretended affront to distract from the obvious truth that is staring everyone in the face: namely that D.T. Trump attempted to corrupt the 2020 election by extorting a foreign Government to conduct a sham investigation. By conducting this farce of a hearing, these Republicans are clearly willing to trash your country´s constitution, undermine its democratic institutions and betray the USA to its enemies
9
If Republicans give Trump a pass on this, they will be punished in November.....mark my word.
6
Do you think Trump can take all four states like PA, MI, WI, OH again in Nov 2020. It depends who will his challenger.
1
"Lawmakers are elected specifically to speak for voters on crucial issues. That’s the system. That’s their job."
And lawmakers are sometimes blind or out of tune. See the comments of Maureen Dowd in Opinion today:
"I went to the press gallery one afternoon to check out the tableau vivant. The visitors’ gallery was only half full, and there was none of the passion and titillation that infused the Clinton impeachment, which also, oddly enough, revolved around a power disparity between two people.
One Democratic Senate staffer mourned the apathy. “Our phones aren’t ringing,” he told me. “Nobody cares. It’s the saddest thing ever.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/25/opinion/sunday/trump-senate-impeachment-trial.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
3
Trump has proven to be a cancer on our nation's soul. Clearly, his election, given his direct appeals to Putin for assistance in this regard, is deeply suspect and raises serious questions about the legitimacy of his election in the first place. And as this next election cycle approaches, he, once again, is seeking Russian interference to win (steal) a second term in office. This is outrageous! Our nation can not take another four years of this toxic clown in office!
5
To assure the removal - either by impeachment or election - of this horrific President: sometimes you have to join em' to beat em'. "UN, can you help us locate and release Trump's tax returns?" Why only stop at Russia, China or Ukraine?
3
The Electoral College doesn't exist eh.
the Senators must render a verdict in accordance with the evidence and the laws.
Guilty !
It is in response to the lamest impeachment. So, if its the lamest, it is "lamest see as lamest do."
We should count our chickens, knock on wood, cross our fingers and thank G-d that that this guy and not his VP-like is our president. This guy and this constitution is what we paid for and deserve, Americans do not want a robust representative democracy like Germany or the northern countries. They believe in nothing at all but the ‘American Dream’ whatever that is, including the ‘electoral college.’ Just pray the lord for little things like a perfect phone call.
This is perhaps the best analysis Frank has ever written. It puts to rest any argument the GOP senators have dreamed up to quash the impeachment of Trump. And it makes clear the danger confronting our democracy.
To say that the Senate has let the American people down is putting it mildly. The only way out now has been left up to the people and it will be their vote in 2020 that decides whether or not the damage Trump has done will be rectified. The alternative is too horrifying to imagine.
The closest thing to the current state of affairs I can think of is when the British people withstood the German Blitz after their government's capitulation to Hitler and then went on to defeat the Nazis and insure the survival of democracy. That may well be the kind of test we're about to face.
2
Lame, true, but the lamest? How about the contention that there was no quid pro quo because (after his extortion scheme had been revealed) Trump told Gordon Sondland there wasn't one. Or how about "It's all hearsay, but we won't allow testimony from witnesses with first hand knowledge" defense? To me, picking the lamest Trump impeachment trial defense is like sorting through a barrel of rotten apples to find the most rotten apple of all. I mean they're all going to make you sick, right?
4
If I hear one more "overthrow the election" or "coup" comment, I'm going to throw up. 1)He lost the election by almost 3 million votes. 2)That would imply somehow magically a Democrat is suddenly the president. Nope!! It's Mike Pence, the most conservative of Republicans, next in line. Not exactly a coup d'etat...
6
Right and I’m uncertain anything would be better under Pence.
1
Taken to its logical conclusion, the President's lawyers should propose a nationwide special election to be held as soon as possible, to allow every voter to decide only one question. Should we continue to allow the lying, cheating, racist, proudly ignorant failed businessman continue to be our President: Yes or No.
2
Cipponloni and Trump's Tatoo (Jay Suckulow) are an embarrassment to the legal profession. Do these people actually sleep at night or do they go to bed when the sun rises?
3
The latest Republican non-defence is that the Subpoenas issued by the house committees during the investigation were not valid because the the entire house did not authorize them to investigate the possibility of impeachment .
Huh? That’s stupid!
It is true that the Constitution requires the entire house to vote on the actual articles of impeachment, just as it has to vote on every final bill and resolution. However, it is silent as to how the house (and senate for that matter) organizes itself into committees that investigate and report back to the house.
This is why every committee issued subpoena has the full authority of the house. The same is true of Senate Committees. Finally the Senate has no more authority to dictate how the house conducts it’s business then the house does the Senate. Yet, because Trump supporters want to believe this nonsense, they choose to.
We have to explain this clearly and often.
1
The argument that the Democrats want to tear up the ballots of 63M voters is silly, because impeachment, at its conclusion, is designed to remove bad actors from office, whether they got the majority of the popular vote or not. Trump was stupid enough to attempt this Ukraine scheme, and he is being rightly held to account. To me, it doesn't matter whether he did this in the first year of his term, or the 3rd year. Pelosi saw a serious abuse of power, and she reacted accordingly.
3
@Steve
Also he did NOT get "the majority of the popular vote."
1
The Electoral College keeps popping up in NYT articles, forced by people who apparently don’t know what a U.S. State is—or—they want just one single State: The Super State!
What would a Super-State do better? Well, it would override all them Republicans who allow raw sewage to enter our waterways; it would remove the gun and install high-security systems in to our schools to find the stragglers still desiring to pull a trigger and yes, it would cause a fatal dilemma which all Super-States create: lack of creativity due to the standardization of human thought. Put on your uniform people, because left and right would no longer be right!
And yes, most important of all, a Super-State has no problem killing! Killing anything and everything against the state! Well, there you have it: your utopia.
1
When the going gets rough, the GOP leadership goes against the constitution. They cynically put forward specious arguments because they know most voters aren't familiar with the constitution like they supposedly are. Trump impeachment lawyers Cipollone, and Sekulow should be disbarred for throwing this garbage up as a defense.
1
The gop is still smarting over Watergate(and probably LBJ'S signing the Civil Rights Act),and the fact they got crushed in the '76 elections. Why would they worry about their base base? The base base has nowhere to go. The gop is more worried about the "middle", whatever or whomever that is. They are just as concerned about their heads on a pike. Going after Manchin now. Perhaps his daughter's lucrative job in the pharmaceutical sector might be threatened. These guys are slick, and they know to where to hit these people ,in their ,or their family's wallets. The modern day "pike."
1
The Trump Defense
Lovely to look at, to listen to, too
The Dems blasting Trump, a fabulous crew
Master of all the nasties committed
That in Trump’s view he was permitted
Under the Law of doing the dirty
‘Gainst his opponents – show them no mercy;
No worse than Johnson – stealing the Senate
Or Sainted Jack a new White House tenant,
All Dems = as we speak – but crooked as sin –
Just like the Trumpster they wanted to win.
Hey everyone lawlessness is in Vogue and the Republicans want it that way. Lawlessness is the new black. I know for certain after Trump is let off the hook I am going to look for ways to divert all my money to off shore accounts. Won't everyone? Why do I want to pay into a broken system of a corrupt government? I am going to look at ways to bend the system. As many as possible. I appreciate my actions are endorsed by the Senate Republicans. I might join a gang or start my own criminal organization. Why not? This is the new American way and Trump leads it and McConnell approves. Nice work Republicans.
2
It is most depressing to learn that the two-party system is failing, and that about 40% of the US voting population stands behind an incompetent, amoral liar, Donald Trump. Even worse, as we awaken to the gut-wrenching news of each day, we understand that our democracy is under siege by the Republican Party that supports Trump, his crimes and misdemeanors and rejects the rule of law. The Republican Party leadership is actually America's worst nightmare and Trump is the glaring symbol of their traitorous hypocrisy.
There will never be any way to change the votes of the Trump Cult worshipers. The only way to restore a stable and decent government is to work hard to get out the vote and go the polls in massive numbers...numbers great enough to overcome Republican voter suppression and Russian election interference.
We must cleanse our government of Trump, McConnell, Barr and all of their corrupted Republican lackeys in Congress. The alternative is an endless descent into the bottomless Trumpian abyss.
5
It is sobering and frightening to read the comments on this column and encounter so much misunderstanding and outright ignorance of the American system of government and of the facts of the current crisis -- and this among people who presumably read the New York Times, a publication that at least attempts to provide its readers with facts and background information.
2
“Give the people back their power,” the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, implored a few months ago.."
Hear, hear! And the people demand witnesses and documents at the Senate trial. Right, Kevin?
5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election#/media/File:2016_Presidential_Election_ballot.jpg
Presidential ticket Party
Trump / Pence Republican
Senate Republicans would not be disregarding the 2016 election after all there were two people on the ballot. Although Pence supports and enablers Trump he is not as immoral and criminal as Trump.
1
Time to refresh your memory about the Constitution, Frank.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has gotten the constitutional law exactly backwards. It said that the "faithful execution of the law" - the Impoundment Control Act- "does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those congress has enacted into law ."
But, yes, it does - when it comes to "Foreign" policy.
The Constitution allocates to the president sole authority over foreign policy (short of declaring war or signing a treaty). It does not permit Congress to substitute its foreign policy preferences for those of the president.
Because the Dems are arguing that the statute at issue constrains the power of the president to conduct foreign policy, they are acting in an unconstitutional manner.
So despite what Trump did or did not do with regard to the Ukrainian money — which was eventually sent without strings — he certainly had the authority to delay sending the funds.
What is not being discussed AT ALL is what exactly did Biden do when he was VP and who benefitted by his actions…but we won't go there for this editorial.
1
The philosophy of party above all, including ethics, integrity, sacrifice and professionalism, is now officially gone from the GOP (the Greedy Old Party). The Republicans in elected posts today, especially those in the U.S. Senate, have apparently forgotten wholesale what their oath of office really means. I took an oath when I was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. Taking an oath of service is both a personal achievement and a sacrifice to put country before self. GOP senators seem not to care about the oath they took. No guts, no glory.
4
It’s a great example of the tragedy of the commons.
What’s good for individual Republicans may turn out to be very bad for the Republican Party as a whole. Yes, individual Republican senators will protect themselves from defeat in the primaries but they will have severely tarnished the country’s view of the Republican party.
People are already waking up to the realization that the Republican Party is desperate at the prospect of demographic decline. Their source of support, older rural white male high school graduates, is almost visibly diminishing in the face of an onslought of younger, browner, better educated, more diverse voters.
Their own children are abandoning the farm for the city, and marrying people of a different race or the same gender!
Look at the way Republicans are terrified at immigration. Look at how they stole a Supreme Court nomination from Obama, they radically curtailed an FBI investigation on Kavanaugh, they have been curtailing Democratic voters at every turn, and have refused to even look at hundreds of laws passed by the House.
And now this. Almost visibly covering their ears when the obvious is pointed out to them.
11
I have often thought, of late, that the Senate has now become merely another political body, rather than a deliberative body. With the near abandonment of the filibuster and nearly all matters of importance brought up settled on purely partisan lines, perhaps the time has come to dissolve the Senate and proceed to a unicameral legislature. The Senate has become only a roadblock to legislation and confirmations that the majority of its members are hesitant to debate (which is in theory their obligation).
This, of course, requires an amendment to the Constitution, but one can easily see, in future matters of importance, it could make the difference between having a nation that resembles a representative democracy and one that truly isn't.
6
Thanks to Mr Bruni for saying things that shouldn't need to be said. The unrepentant duplicity of Trump's lawyers, and the whole scofflaw misadministration, is aimed at the uninformed and unthinking voters who put him into office, and who make necessary the constant repetition of things that should be self evident.
16
The Trump claim that “lawmakers shouldn’t speak for voters” is not a defense of the impeachment articles at all! It is, in fact, an alternate charge aimed at Congress, and another example of Mr. Trump’s tendency to “counterpunch” when attacked. But whatever this defense is designed to do, it has absolutely no bearing on the charges at hand. Chief Justice Roberts should put a stop to this charade!
6
The Republicans aren't concerned with our welfare. If they vote with the Democrats, they would be branded traitors to their party, shunned by Moscow Mitch and there goes their lucrative future lobbying/avisory positions. That's what it's about, folks: their post Senate livelihoods.
They're betraying the people to save their jobs and future incomes.
10
For a too long time, the value of a black voter was 3/5 of the one of a white one. With the electoral college, the value of a Democratic vote is less than one. It says it all: this country still has a lot to fix.
9
Trials have witnesses.
Cover ups don’t.
16
It is always amazing to listen to conservatives whom they are saying that we have to stick to the letters of the constitution. But when it does not suit their legal or political goals then they are very good at finding stuffs which are not in the constitution, like a lame duck president can not nominated a Supreme Court judge, a Congress can not impeach and remove a President,... Let the people decided they are saying. But then they legislate to restrict the voting's rights of the people.
1
Few minds have been changed since these impeachment hearings began. If you are a Trump supporter you still are and if you are not a supporter you still do not. If there is some new breaking news or evidence pro or con about the Ukraine impeachment it could sway the American people one way or the other. Until that happens, people have a definite opinion about our president’s innocence or guilt on this impeachment trial. Allowing the people to vote in the 2020 election would be the deciding factor for or against President Trump.
Excellent rebuttal to the Republican legislators not wanting to do their job! We taxpayers need to remove these deadbeats from the payroll we fund next November. They have been on the dole way too long, especially Moscow Mitch McConnell.
6
One side of the Republican mouth says "let the voters decide".... while the other side of the mouth whispers "voter suppression" and "Gerrymandering"....
10
When Republicans says “voters” they mean “cronies”.
That they can regularly get away with this scam is a direct result of the Electoral College set up to insure that only the votes of cronies of the rich, powerful, and landowning would count.
2
Frank, thanks for the article! Completely true! In the spirit of fairness, I tried to listen to the Trump defense team. Their lies, deflections and complete nonsense was too much to bear! We, turned off the TV!
Perhaps, Trump supporters an stomach lies, perhaps they are a-okay with being lied to, with insults thrown at honest, decent Adam Schiff, I’m not!
IF Trump is innocent then call the witnesses to exonerate him! IF Trump is innocent, the release the original transcript and recording of the call! The FACT that Republicans and Trump are refusing to bring evidence of innocence to the American people, the FACT that Trump and Republican refuse to call witnesses....speakers clearly of Trump’s guilt!
“No one prevents a witness from testifying who can exonerate them.” - Joyce Vance, former U.S. attorney from the northern district of Alabama.
Lies do not become truth because you repeat them over and over and over.
7
There once was a President named Trump
To many, vile and even a chump.
But despite his corruption
Republicans stood firm in devotion,
And the Constitution went straight to the dump.
The Republicans seem terrified of this president and will do anything to protect him. The consequences, as we may eventually see, will be dire.
4
Know what's funny?
"McCarthy, McConnell and other Republicans are determined to spare their party the humiliation of Trump’s removal..."
Each day Trump remains president he humiates himself, the Republican Party and America, but mostly the Republican Party, which has debased itself beyond comprehension. Republicans enabling and protecting a mafia boss conman, who is not very bright, proves how immoral and dimwitted they are.
Ultimately the joke's on them, not Trump. Trump's reputation has always smelled like untreated sewage. He has always been a known portapotty. But Republicans once had a modicum of respect. They were once clever enough to maintain a veil of deniability for their wilfull deceits and betrayals of the people. No more.
The American people are disgusted with Republicans. We are tormented that they are getting away with the travesty of protecting their mafia boss, but history will punish them. Their party will forever be known for betraying America. McConnell in particular will cited as an example of what it means to bring humiliation on one's self.
7
Trump's defense may be the dumbest, but look who's buying it, the Republican House and Senate. I'd sure like to know what Chief Justice Roberts is thinking. That's the Million Dollar Question. Maybe we can use the Astro's sign stealing technique and read Roberts expressions. I will say that I'm glad Schiff is giving an after session recap of the truth of the matter.
4
Their chief defense is that there is no impeachment in the Constitution. Never heard of the word. Smother it.
Recall all copies of the Constitution and re-write it.
4
According to Wikipedia, Clinton had 2,868,686 votes more than trump. So if power had actually belonged to "the people," trump would never have won in the first place.
So much for *that* argument. So much for team trump's caring one iota for the Constitution.
But as always, team trump wants to win by obscuring the facts and even preventing their coming to light in the first place.
They have claimed that many Democrats hate trump and wanted to impeach him from day one. Wait – the fact that he is hated an people realized very early on that he would be a disaster for the United States is used as a *defense*???
If that's their best defense, there is only one verdict possible: guilty.
I hope Republican senators will
1
His best defense is a criminal GOP, supported by criminal corporations and many loyal serfs who were bred and educated to be very subservient and passive.
2
Mr Bruni, you are spot on. The Republicans use whatever lame excuse suits their purpose. They aren't representing the people, they aren't following the Constitution - they are using the power they have right now in the Senate to control the impeachment outcome. If Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell truly believe that the people should be the deciding factor in this - why not allow a national referendum vote - and then the Senate acts according to those results? Give the power of this decision back to the people right now, not in November.
5
What do the broad swath of scientific polls indicate the will of the people is with regard to impeachment and removal? Republicans never trumpet this fact.
Anyone who's been paying close attention already knows the sad and inevitable truth that voters are powerless when it comes to electing the president.
And you can thank the Electoral College for that because that institution clearly invalidates the popular vote.
Which is how we ended up with Donald Trump.
It's also why now, perhaps more than any other time in history, the U.S. is running the real risk of turning into an autocracy, or worse, a dictatorship.
No doubt much of the problem lies with a Republican Senate that not only dutifully coalesces around party lines, but has the unenviable tendency to ignore and disavow the truth even when presented with incontrovertible evidence.
And there's no reason to doubt that Mitch McConnell & Co. would have no problem acting if it were a Democratic president involved.
We saw that much with their obstruction of Barack Obama and the Merrick Garland nomination.
In the meantime, they've been busy nominating and placing as many conservative circuit judges while keeping the focus trained elsewhere.
There's not much doubt they will acquit Trump of all charges, even though the Democrat's carefully presented evidence speaks otherwise and in one video presentation after another where both the president and several Senators were shown contradicting themselves from earlier statements.
That doesn't mean that We, the American People should give up the ghost and not vote -- but it does mean history repeats itself, and we'll have to fight for it.
18
"But McCarthy, McConnell and other Republicans are determined to spare their party the humiliation of Trump’s removal and to protect themselves from his wrath (and his base’s fury) if he isn’t saved."
The Dems always do this. They project their values and motivations onto Republicans. In this case, the belief that Republicans can be "humiliated," a sentiment Trump and the current crop of Republicans as a whole do not feel under any circumstance.
They are only about raw political power. Ruthlessly using any means they can to attain it, and then ruthlessly using any means to exploit it to achieve their goals when they have it.
6
Some would argue this is a different Republican Congress. I would disagree. It only has a different Senate Majority Leader, a person who has no intention of ever working with his Democratic colleges or the House Majority. Just consider the number of House passed legislative bills that languish on his desk. From climate change to election reform, the bills are dying by the will of one person, Mitch McConnell.
But he is not solely to blame. Were his Republican peers to persuade him to at least put the House passed legislation on the Senate floor, we might be able to pass some worthwhile laws. But no, never going to happen.
The remedy then has to be removal by election and it can't come too soon.
8
@allen roberts
An election is not likely to change anything, the system is set up to serve big money and landowners and corporations, not the people. Republicans oppose the working middle class and lose the popular vote and still win elections. That also made the corruption of the judicial branch possible.
3
This. Thank you.
Also, crimes and misdeeds involving election interference, which is what this is, would inherently take place within arm’s reach of an election, would they not? Seems unlikely that a president would solicit a smear campaign against an election opponent within year one of first being elected, when the GOP would, presumably, consider it their responsibility - not the voters’ - to remove him/her.
But then, we all know the calls of “they’re trying to overturn the election” would be proportionately louder instead (assuming it was a GOP president).
@Cooper
Trump never stopped campaigning for the next election. He has been in campaign gear since day one of the first election.
1
Perhaps the "Let the voters decide." might be more persuasive if The Presidents actions were past history or a one-off, but it seems to be a continuing (crime-like?) enterprise. He continues to use private fixers to pursue foreign corruption charges against Joe Biden. He continues to deny taht he did anything wrong in arm-twisting Ukraine into agreeing to a public announcement of an investigation against Hunter Biden. He continues to recognize the coequal authority of the legislature.
Had he said, "I was wrong. I can see, since the GAO report, that I had crossed a line and I will make steps to ensure it does not happen again." His defenders argument might make sense. But The President seems as incapable of honest self-assessment as he is of stating unvarnished truth. He remains a danger to US interests.
8
“Letting the voters decide” is just one reason for Congress to take a leave of absence until January 2021.
There is a better reason.
If the Republicans led by McConnell, acquit Trump with no additional witnesses or documents, they have abdicated their Article II function in government. They cease to exist as a co-equal branch. So forget a leave of absence until January 2021, acquitting Trump is the end of representative government as we know it. Then, we will be in a dictatorship.
12
Impeachment is mentioned five times in the Constitution. The House has the "sole power of impeachment". The Senate has the "sole power of trial". Judgment shall extend only "removal from office and disqualification to hold office. But an imaoched person shall nevertheless be liable to "indictment, trial, judgment and punishment according to law." The President can pardon any crime "against the United Sates", except impeachment.
The Founders seem to have taken it for granted that the will of the voters could be overturned by Congress.
5
@Wolf Kirchmeir
The congresspeople do represent us the people, we elected them. The president is accountable to us, the people.
It’s amazing and deeply troubling that Republicans have adopted the same strategy as the president, which is to deny and lie about everything. Obfuscation and deception are the name of the game, and the more frequent and louder the better. Trump is a master of this on his Twitter account, where he reaches millions, and his FOX TV cronies are good at it too. Think of how many people are reached by these two means alone, how many don’t have any other source of information. Both these sources are tainted with emotional, opinionated and false information.
I wish we didn’t have either, however we can’t roll back the clock on how information gets disseminated. This situation is the fruit of what we have sowed. It includes the negative side of technology, the vast fortunes that come with exploiting the capitalist system, and unregulated monopolies in the news media.
10
"Let the voters decide." How could they if they didn't have all the evidence upon which to make such decision?
17
The Trump arguments that he can't be removed from office need to be seen together with their corollaries: that Donald Trump can't lose an election, and that he deserves more than two terms. There are signs that Donald Trump is afraid of what his legal position will be if he ever stops being president, so that he'd prefer to remain president for the rest of his life even though, in many ways, he doesn't seem to like the job and might well enjoy better being supposedly the world's greatest and most honored former president.
1
Circular logic in a circus of the absurd.
Politicians often use dishonest rhetoric to win their point with highly paid, highly educated lawyers with elastic, if any, morals.
Take the arguments put forth by team Trump.
1) Accuse the prosecution of doing what the defendant was charged with doing- interfering with the 2016 and 2020 elections.
This avoids the facts of the case, in fact it concedes the actual case facts are so strong that only an irrational assault might work.
2) Continue to break the same laws while the trial is ongoing. Since “everything” he does is “perfect,” there is no need to change behavior.
3) Minimize the mountain into mole hills. Even if he did what he was accused of, Obama held back money from a foreign government. This is a false equivalence argument that stops short of including important context. Obama was carrying out the US policy in coordination withCongress.
In contras DJT is carrying out personal political election interference, not even remotely comparable.
4) The House cannot call witnesses in a timely manner because the WH will tie up the issue in court for 2 years rewarding the accused with the very thing he broke the law to obtain, re-election.
You have to wonder about how the political/ legal arguments will be made to not remove DJT if he loses the Electoral College vote this year. After all everyone is unfairly picking on the true victim in all Trump stories, Mr Trump.
Will my fellow Republicans will awaken from Wonderland in time?
8
Simply put, elections aren't an alternative to enforcing of the law. If they were, any office holder could simply break whatever laws they want up until the election, and particularly could do so without consequence if they're in a "safe" district or state.
There must be consequences to breaking the law.
19
Another great column from Mr. Bruni. Unfortunately a majority of our citizens who might benefit from the points made there and in the accompanying readers' comments will never see it.
It should be clear to any rational person that DJT is completely unfit for the presidency of anything, much less of the United States. His enablers, his cheerleaders, his sycophants, and most especially the current crop of Republicans in both Houses of Congress care little or nothing for The Constitution, the rule of law, and apparently their own moral and ethical principles.
13
True. Please share this article with friends and family. If you have a social media page, share it there.
2
@Paul
A secret vote of no confidence would have solved the problem a long time ago.
With Republicans in charge, even as the minority party, they have blocked responsible governing for more than a decade. To top it off the current president repealed and repealed progressive domestic policies others worked hard for, leading us back to the 19th century domestically.
1
I wouldn't vote for Trump if he were running against Porky Pig. Still, I give him credit where credit is due.
The impeachment process is heated and the arguments are vindictive. But Trump has largely confined his anger and his animosity to the impeachment matter itself. He has gone about his trade policy, his Iran policy, his economic policy, etc., etc. pretty much as he always has -- with poor planning, but with the same defined goals he has pursued since Day 1.
If Trump has made any policy decisions that were not characteristic in order to secure revenge against Schiff, Nadler or Schumer, I haven't noticed. Rather, he seems to have channeled his anger and has not let it blanket other policy matters.
True, Trump is a mean-spirited guy. But he appears to have compartmentalized impeachment in a manner that allows him to do his job no better, but no worse than before.
Nixon was petty during Watergate and it consumed him. Business as usual was out the door. That simply is not true about Trump. And Bruni and the rest of the editorial staff should acknowledge that Trump is carrying out the duties of the presidency as always, not allowing impeachment to cloud his judgment with respect to unnrelated matters. His policies toward Iran and China and his health care and immigration agendas have not been distorted to discredit the impeachment process. And it is only fair that Bruni. acknowledge that Trump is not Nixon, and has not allowed his vengeance to consume him.
1
First, what’s simply not true is that Nixon got nothing done during Watergate. At least in public he held up pretty well, and there’s a LIST of accomplishments. You’ve confused Trump with Bill Clinton, whoch is I guess somewhat easier.
Second, your “very stable genius,” set a new record for loopy tweets during the presentation of the House’s indictment case. And then there’s the fact that Trumpy hasn’t been able to get through five minutes of his inept press conferences without bellowing about the. Ail holes in his poor, poor hands.
So whoever you actually voted for—and my guess is, it WAS the Donald—why’re you reciting his various phony alibis and defenses?
4
The fact that Trump has broken his Twitter record twice last week tells me he’s consumed.
4
@michjas
So much back and forth about what is even impeachable. It does boil down to no confidence, there are many reasons to not have any confidence and trust in Trump. Even if he wins and is not removed from office, as expected, there will be no confidence in the man by the majority of voters, but he may win the electoral college. That would not make Democracy look good.
Here's my question although I"m not sure this is the proper forum. If Trump is acquitted by this Senate and then "smoking gun" evidence is discovered, can he be impeached a second time?
9
Yes. Double jeopardy doesn’t apply.
3
@anon
Don't know the answer to your question, but I think this is why the Republican Senators want to acquit without witnesses. It might look bad to acquit after witnesses!
2
Impeachment, as Mr. Bruni writes, is highly democratic. And his point that if republicans were really concerned about democracy, they would oppose the electoral college.
But additionally, republicans would not be putting up roadblocks to voters they don't like, people of color and the young in particular, at every turn! They would not be the main cause of gerrymandering. And they would revamp the senate so that a state like Wyoming with 400,000 people would not have the same number of senators as California, a state with almost 40,000,000. The republicans are hypocrites, pure and simple
11
@Doug
The nation is some 300 years old and three out of four impeachments happened in the last 50 years.
If we can't reform the electoral process at least the impeachment needs to change. Congress which is more representative of the people than the Senate should have a vote of no confidence instead of a politicized and useless vote of impeachment.
@ARL Maybe there have been three impeachments because they has been deserved (although in Clinton's case, while his behavior was despicable, it was mainly personal and probably did not deserve removal from office). Are you suggesting that Nixon should not have been impeached? And, in his case, the process worked. Trump, the evidence shows (as opposed to republican rhetoric), is a threat to the republic and democracy. Impeachment is necessary for protecting democracy between elections. And in particular, Trump has said explicitly that he wants foreign intervention to help him win the election, which would then compromise the ability of the electorate to fairly prevail!
I agree that the senate is a structurally anti-democratic institution, as I already described. But that is why it must be reformed.
The impeachment process itself is enlightening for anyone paying attention and with an open mind. So even if the inevitable outcome in this case is Trump wriggling free, it should be clear to the people, from the very process, where the problems lie. If that knowledge is not the outcome, and citizens do not act on it, then shame on us!
1
The Founding Fathers would not laugh at this defense as a joke. They'd start another revolution to stop the destruction of what they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to create.
May the next election be that revolution.
10
The best thing about this "let the voters decide" argument is that it isn't really an argument at all. Like everything else the GOP does these days, it's just another Big Fat Lie.
In fact, the last time I heard a Republican tell the truth about anything, was when Eisenhower warned us about the military/industrial complex back in 1961. Since then, it's been nothing but one lie after another, e.g. "I am not a crook'.
And their lies get bigger and bolder with each passing day. And when you turn lies into the truth, you inevitably have to turn the truth into a lie. Facts, science, reality, the truth - they must all be derided as a fabrication, as a "hoax".
The GOP lies so consistently now, that you can take anything they say and invert it, and there you will find the unvarnished truth.
They say that Donald Trump has lied over 13,000 times in office. Wouldn't it be easier to number the times he's told the truth? Because, as far as I can tell, that number is exactly ZERO.
I'd don't think any fair minded individual could site a single example of Trump telling the "whole truth" about anything.
12
Next they'll be saying that the only person qualified to decide Donald Trump's fate is Donald Trump. I mean, why not? If there's one thing the modern GOP has taught themselves it's not only to lie constantly, about everything, but that if you're going to lie, lie big. The bigger the better!
6
The hypocrisy and lies that come from both Democrats and Republicans are easily dismissed by the ideological adherents of either party. McConnell betrayed the American people while jockeying for power; but his followers accepted his treasons. McConnell used obscure reasoning to prevent an Obama nominated judge getting on the Supreme Court. McConnell forced the government to shut down because he did not get his way; and his followers allowed this precedent. These tactics betray the trust the people put in their representatives. Both parties place power above integrity but the Republican Party with their President eclipses even the most extreme moments. The Republican defense of Trump in his impeachment is clearly and simply that Trump can do whatever he wants as long as McConnell and the other disgraceful elements hold the Senate. America is fast approaching a 'third world' political profile. They have the oligarchs maintaining the status quo, a President who acts without restraint, and a Republican Senate majority that is as corrupt as can be. Is this OK because we're number one?
2
@Issac Basonkavich "Comes from both Democrats and Republicans"? Really? Where are your examples of *anything* that Democrats have done that approaches the level of corruption you describe among Republicans? Why the both-sides-ism?
3
Good statement of a few of the most egregious lies and misuses of power by McConnell and the GOP. What equivalent actions by democrats would you cite? I don't think there is anything of nearly the same magnitude or pervasiveness, and since it's democrats, obviously not the same organization and lock step execution.
3
@Issac Basonkavich
The attempt at “bothsidesism” rings false in the wake of the through and honest representation of the facts by Democrats in this mock trial staged by Republicans.
Our representatives have just pulled together their finest hour in the defense of what little may be left of our country. There was no “hypocrisy and lies”, no “power above integrity” on their part. This was a moment of heroism, and we must honor it as history surely will.
As in the days of the Revolution that birthed this country, we once again have giants among us. They may be mere flawed humans, but in this moment they became much more.
No, today the “hypocrisy and lies” and the “power above integrity” are the exclusive domain of Republicans as they trample on the Constitutionality mandated balance of power and rule of law, rushing headlong in their quest to destroy our country and enshrine their Despot.
And, rest assured, our country is no longer “number one” by any measure, so quickly did we fall.
3
The GOP has abandoned all principles, embracing our enemies, ignoring truth, enabling an autocrat. History will not be kind.
8
What has become a joke is the Republican Party. There isn't even the pretext of honesty or integrity, just raw blind ambition and power at any expense of anyone or anything. But we will have to wait for November if there is any chance that the people will change this subject to the voter suppression and Putin's interference at the invitation of the GOP. It may take more than a potentially corrupted election to change things.
4
Exactly right. So all DC business comes to a halt within a year of a coming Presidential election? If you then include the mid-terms, when, pray tell, do our elected representatives actually do their jobs? According to the GOP, apparently only when it's convenient for them.
This assertion is ludicrous on its face. By this logic, why have a House and Senate at all? Why not have all government business based on a direct vote?
Alas, that would backfire on the very people who are obstructing the law. Because the Electoral College is itself a form of representative accounting. If everything is decided by a popular vote, then the GOP would immediately be cast aside as irrelevant. The popular vote is not in their favor.
Hey #MoscowMitch and your henchmen, be careful what you wish for.
6
By Republicans’ arguments Impeaching President Clinton would be an attempt to reverse the results of 92 and 96 elections...Do they admit to that?
6
I am not a lawyer but it's clear to me the President is guilty.
The president's lawyer's Do Not and Can Not deny Trump's guilt so they keep coming back to the same old distraction strategy:
"the Democrats hate the president",
"what about the younger Biden's alleged corruption?",
"Republicans were not allowed into the House Impeachment hearings",
"the President is being treated unfairly and was not given a chance to defend himself",
"let the voters decide",
"his actions were not a 'crime' and in any case do not rise to an Impeachable offense".
Oh please.
Any republican Senator who was not sleeping, drawing pictures, or had their mind already made up can see how baseless trumps lawyer's claims are.
7
Trumps lawyers need to play the whole unedited recorded phone call with the president of Ukraine. It will either prove him innocent or show his corrupt intentions The failure to do so only proves his guilt, proving the senate republicans are only making a political judgement, and not a fact based decision.
8
Dear Frank, happy new year and the best to you.
1
Democrats are still trying to overturn the 2016 election. What was it Obama said? Elections have consequences; Trump won. Get over it.
@Once From Rome: The House of Representatives turned majority Democratic in 2018 and the House has the sole power of impeachment. Get over it.
1
@Once From Rome
Poor Pence will be sad to hear that his becoming President will "overturn the 2016 election!"
2
@Once From Rome
You mean the Democrats want to put Pence in the White House?
You guys make me laugh.
2
This argument falls on deaf ears. Trump cultists are not familiar with the US Constitution, and Republicans who are don't feel they have to follow its edicts.
6
What's so discouraging is that the bogus, ignorant arguments these lawyers offer appeal to Trump's base and other republicans who respond only to emotion. Democrats under Schiff appeal to logic as well and deploy facts. But the majority of Trump supporters lack analytical ability and if they understand logic, reject it for emotional reasons.
5
I am expecting the GOP/ TRUMP to argue that the 2020 election was rigged, and that for he should not leave the WH until the next election in 2024 or until Barr can prove that it was not rigged by a foreign country.
.
Staying in the WH (by hook or by crook) is the only thing between him and a jail cell.
5
Yes, this is how we expect republican presidents to conduct our business. Distilled-we are pointing the gun at you. Power a la Mao. Or that new revolutionary. Worked his whole life just for this moment.
Your worst neighbor, They'll decide which turnip fields need tended.
Miscarriages/abortions will be investigated in citizens court.
Any property will be subject to seizure.
The laws will be rewritten on a rolling basis, validating pretty much anything.
Religion will become the third branch of government. What it replaces is pretty much none of your business.
African Americans will be repatriated.
Recreating, particulary golf will be elevated to a new science.
Mess? We don't got no mess. Things are workng out just fine.
You won't live long enough to get the humor.
3
Trump’s lamest defense? Hard to pick a winner, but I would have to go with his line that he is weeding out corruption in Ukraine. Considering the deep corruption of those dictators he so reveres, not to mention that in his own administration, it is laughable to think that concern for transparency in Ukraine drove his behavior.
3
Schiff just needs to reveal the information that he received from Russians in Ukraine, in 2016 that proves that Trump was in collusion with the Russians. Schiff has said many times that he has it. Then Trump is toast.
@William McCain: Can you point out to me the sources that report that Schiff has that information?
1
Unfortunately, the republican base is so intellectually dull that they will believe whatever they are told. It doesn't matter how ridiculous the arguments are. We are done for.
4
And of course, should a Supreme Court vacancy arise this year, we can be absolutely certain McConnell will begin expedited rubber-stamp confirmation proceedings the moment Trump receives the nomination from the Federalist Society. And if anyone dares to mention Merrick Garland, McConnell will respond with a completely straight reptilian face that Democrats are ignorant hypocrites because they presume to question a [Republican] president's absolute authority to nominate justices until the moment his term runs out.
4
Fealty to the king! Any pretense of fairness is insult to intelligence. But that is not to worry about. What trial? It is a foregone conclusion.
The thing to worry is the next election. Will Trump leave the White House when he loses? He will not. Will a civil war erupt? Not quite, but there will be blood. We were told so. An uprising is foretold. We better believe it and expect it.
Trump will go down in history as a criminal for instigating criminal acts against the nation and its institution.
And Mitch will not come to the rescue. America will recover from madness and treachery!
3
We have a rogue president and a rogue administration who are in collusion to preserve power. This is the power to do whatever they please whenever they want. They are drunk on a power trip.
They care not one whit about the laws of the country and the Constitution. They have raw power and they are holding on like crazy.
This behaviour is treasonous. It looks like the only remedy is an election. which they are busy fixing and have already fixed with an impotent electoral college.
They have a tiger by the tail, and are holding on for dear life. At this point If they let go they are dead and they know it. They say they are in control,but they actually are at the end of a rope...
4
They're defending a rigged economy that gives them all the monied updoots while stripping the rest of any of these, by rigging our democracy, suffocating it with sham processes.
That's all.
Voter suppression, the gerrymander, black-box voting, court stacking, nomination theft, a 24/7 propaganda smokescreen, evidence withholding, witness tampering, witness gagging, witnesses left uncalled and witnesses left unquestioned, cover-up, sham trial, obstruction of justice, obstruction of due process, you name it.
All to get that corporate welfare for their puppet masters, tax cuts for the rich only, and deregulation of their fraud and predation.
3
The GOP will do anything and everything to retain power. They are shameless — and successful so far!
2
Trump may not be convicted and removed from office now but he'll still be impeached, he'll still bear that singular dishonor into infinity as will his family and their descendants.
3
"The election can’t be the remedy when the election is what’s at issue."
Exactly.............
5
You have been accused of cheating at poker. Me : "Only a poker game can decide this!"
2
Cipollone; "No one ever thought that it would be a good idea for our country — for our children, for our grandchildren — to try to remove a president from a ballot, to deny the American people the right to vote.”
Here we have example of what the Repubs have been doing for some time now, from about the Gingrich days to now. Deciding that only they know what the Constitution says, means and should be interpreted. Its a tactical-thing where the Dems have long failed to push-back. The Repubs have been touting this expertise for decades, and since Trump its only gotten worse, as he has brought into their tent many extremists (of the racial kind) who claim a very strict reading, and tend to have a dog-eared copy of the Constitution at the ready. Rare is it to see a Liberal or Lefty whip out their copy and quote from it.
Where once the Repubs read the document in their version of a quasi strict manner, now Trump and his proxies, they are completely ignoring whole swaths and attempting to make the Dems appear like they are making things up. Like they invented this Impeachment thing. That a hundred plus years of precedent hasn't satisfactorily "defined" that high crimes and misdemeanors need not be violations of strict statutes.
"What? Where's that written? There's no such documented precedent. Nope, fake precedent."
And isn't that what this really comes down to? How Trump has normalized, not only his own denial of reality, but its now a tool of the GOP and their proxies.
2
This article is correct, but pointless. The Senate will not vote to remove Trump. Our only hope is defeating Trump in November.
And sadly, I am becoming discouraged about the field of Democratic candidates.
Trump is by far the worst president in American history. But Democrats have moved so far to the left that many of them might be even worse.
The problem is climate change. Every Democratic candidate proclaims that he or she will do everything to fight it. But climate change is the result of too much population growth. And for some reason, perhaps religion, Democrats are afraid to admit that almost obvious fact.
The result is that Democrats on the far left seem to argue that we have a moral obligation to open our borders to immigration. But immigration does not solve the problem of poverty in the third world. It is too little to offset the increases still occurring in countries like Guatemala, where the population grows by about 340,000 per year!
We need to help third world countries control population growth, even as we achieve zero or negative population growth in the US.
Some global warming is already inevitable and it will decrease the carrying capacity of planet earth.
If we don't control population through family planning now, we condemn our children and grandchildren to a deadly fight over resources as the population of earth is forced to decline by global warming.
The notion of open borders should be repudiated by Democratic candidates.
The US is facing a shortage of young workers as the population ages.
As is China, thanks to its one child policy.
Overpopulation is a problem in areas with limited resources.
That is not the case in either the US or China.
Global warming us the result of unregulated industry.
@Blaise Descartes: I do not know of any Democratic candidate, including Bernie Sanders and Elisabeth Warren, advocating for open borders. The whole immigration issue is used by Republicans as a wedge issue while they sabotage effective means to control illegal immigration through e-Verify because it's Republican business owners including Trump, who want to keep the cheap and compliant illegal workers coming. Republicans also oppose means of effective family planning to appease their Evangelical base, while Democrats support Planned Parenthood and birth control as part of medical coverage. Republicans just repealed Obama's environmental protection regulations too.
2
@Blaise Descartes
So how do you suggest we deal with Guatemala (and presumably all the other 3rd World countries) that are behaving so selfishly?
How about the Thanos Solution? I'll bet you would get behind that.
You go first.
If Republicans were truly interested in letting voters decide Trump’s fate, they wouldn’t be blocking Bill Weld from participating in so many state primaries.
9
@Redistrict
Follow Follow @Redistrict
More
A long-term problem for Democrats: a majority of the Senate now represents 18% of the country’s population.
1:22 PM - 20 Aug 2018
Not much has changed since then, and nothing will change for a long time to come.
The nation really needs honest constitutional electoral and impeachment reforms.
The present power structure will not allow real reforms, the nation is stuck with a corrupt government blocking any reforms.
5
Perhaps we should adopt the seven principles of public life NOLAN PRINCIPLES - PDF4PRO
The present impeachment proceedings would therefore not be necessary because Mr. Trump would not have had a chance to be elected.
2
Republicans are grasping at any possible excuse to vote against the obvious, which is that Trump has abused his office and obstructed Congress. This particular excuse isn’t particularly plausible.
Consider the source, a party that has come to rely on widespread voter suppression, gerrymandering and the electoral college to win elections, and that refused to seat President Obama’s Supreme Court pick. Simply put, the GOP has become an authoritarian, anti-democracy party. That’s why this is one of the greatest crises in the history of our country.
12
An impeachment of an elected officer is, by definition, a repudiation of the election of that officer.
5
That's just wrong. Impeachment is based on the actions of the person AFTER they have assumed the office, although in the case of DT his actions were foretold by his previous actions. DT has abused his office. And note if he is removed, we still have a duly elected Republican to assume the office.
23
@Cassandra Then why did the founder's include impeachment? If a sitting President can not be indicted, than how can their behavior be constrained without impeachment?
9
@cassandra. Impeachment has nothing to do with the validity of the election but the actions of the executive branch. Trump defenders try to associate the two to divert attention and make his voters personally associate with the charges he rightfully deserves. I think your argument might apply to the impeachment of Bill Clinton where no impeachable offense occurred so that Republican witch-hunt could be scribed to purely political motives.
6
Imagine what would happen if, for one 24-hour news cycle, Fox News reported what was actually going on. Perhaps it would take longer than 24-hours, but heads would start to explode.
Every day in America is a painful exercise in our crumbling morality and sense of national and global community. That we have a 24/7 fake news network dedicated to keep this happening and divide us from each other and what is in our own best interests as humans defies belief.
25
Republicans have decided it’s not only allowable for a President to solicit foreign aid in an election, but it is permissible for a President to use resources allocated by Congress of the country to demand it.
The precedent is set.
Republicans have decided that the President can withhold evidence from Congress without consequence, and demand others defy Congressional subpoenas as a matter of course.
The precedent is set.
Republicans have decided they can take an oath to defend their country, and then defy it in order to destroy the checks and balances written into our Constitution and undermine the rule of law.
The precedent is set.
Republicans are dismantling our country by ending the balance of power that kept despotism in check. Let’s not pretend this betrayal is anything less.
29
When they win, Republicans say elections have consequences.
When they don't win, the lame duck Republican state legislature strips the incoming Democratic governor of the powers the lame duck Republican governor had.
When the people have elected a Democratic majority to the House, they say wait. That doesn't count. We have to wait for the next election.
When a Democratic president nominates a Supreme Court candidate, that doesn't count. We have to wait for the next election.
They don't even care about the appearance of integrity anymore.
"Give the people back their power,' says McCarthy, the House minority leader.
Sure, Kevin.
39
Thank you, Mr. Bruni, for your articles that clarify what's going on in this election year. It's not pretty. The red caps of Trumpism also include blinders. They will follow the rears of the horses in front of them, spurred on by their Fox jockeys and seemingly unaware and uncaring that they are taking our country over a cliff.
16
I am waiting for Chief Justice Roberts to hold the republican senators for openly taking a false oath to be impartial jurors, let us start with Moscow Mitch. Otherwise the CJ is demeaning his office by presiding over a kangaroo court and lecturing about unbecoming language.
22
@SM Excellent point. Not adhering to your oath is not the same as speaking passionately, it is an unforgivable act.
3
@SM
His job is to preside over kangaroo courts.
2
There is one prediction one can make with confidence. If Trump is
reelected in 2020 most of the supine GOP Senators will rue the day they voted to acquit him. He will be impeached again but for something even worse than the miserable Ukrainian affair and too late to prevent extensive damage to the US democracy,
16
Yes, a joke and it is on us. Canned laughter completes the rigged picture. Can we bring this country towards justice for all based on a flawed vision from the founding elite?
1
Touché, Frank, on your excellent argument, debunking the Republican talking point that we should wait until the election to have the voice of the people heard. The Founders knew that rapacious rapscallions existed in their day who could become bloated with power and stomp out the tender sprout of democracy that their brothers had died to defend against a mad king. Should any man be above Justice? Should any trial be held without witnesses?
I am an American, “hear me roar/in numbers to big to ignore/and I know too much to go back and pretend/cause I’ve heard it all before/oh yes, I am strong/but it’s a wisdom born of pain/yes, I’ve paid the price” but three years is way to long to let a bully rule over us! Time for the facts, senators! They’ll come out anywhere and you craven ones will lose your seats anyway then, so be proud and stand up against tyranny!
13
Trump lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes, and he has not had a 50% approval rating once since the election. So, if Trump's defense team thinks the "voters" should decide what happens to Trump, then they already have. And the verdict of "the people" is a resounding "DUMP TRUMP NOW!".
32
@Chicago Guy
There is no popular vote ! Stop pretending this.
We have the EC and have had it for many many years. Obama managed to get elected twice by it.
Stop blaming the rules when you don’t like the results.
1
Between the lines, McConnell & Co. are essentially saying that they haven’t done their part to curb Trump before, and they’re not just about to start now.
It is pathetic but it lends itself to the conclusion that we, the voters, will have to have the final word here. The Republican Senate is no more than an extension of the corrupt Trump administration, and in November, they will have to be treated as equally culpable.
17
What's that awful racket? Oh -- it's Republicans squawking "Let the people decide!"
What they mean, of course, is "Let the people we hand-pick decide." So in North Carolina, which is 50:50 Democrat:Republican, a Republican sighs that they've gerrymandered districts to assure 10 out of 13 will be Republican only because there's no way to get to 11 -- or 13. Or in Wisconsin and Georgia, where hundreds of thousands of voters, mostly black and/or poor, are wiped from the rolls. Or in Florida, where the governor scorns the will of the voters, who ordered the state to re-institute ex-felons' right to vote by demanding they pay all their fines first -- and calling voting a "privilege" in utter contempt of the Constitution.
The examples march on. Republicans have no more interest in "letting the people decide" than they do in taxing the rich. Let's at least be honest here. This argument is just another instance of the gaslighting and misrepresentation that has become a Republican specialty. It serves the interests of a party that wants to pretend to love America but whose real aim is to undermine our representative system in order to perpetuate rule of a shrinking minority.
18
Senator Lindsey Graham;
“I really do believe that the best person — group of people — to pick a president are the voters, not a bunch of partisan politicians.”
Ever Hear of the Electoral college ?
10
@Getreal
Do you mean the one that elected Obama twice ?
What’s wrong with that one ?
1
The Republicans have forgotten that this is a Republic. Or, maybe they never understood what that means
4
I would like to know what this columnist and folks below would have been saying if Clinton was impeached in his first term close to his second run.
Come on - that's politics.
I dare say Democrats would have pulled a Garland, God forbid, but if RBG was to be replaced.
Politics matters and it matters because people matter.
For the same reason you say that elected should not always defer to the voters.
Ditto with Republican tactics over Garland and other issues. They were not deferring to voters but they acted as elected to preserve Republican advantage.
It has been said that no crisis go waste for enacting things that have nothing to do with crisis.
In the same regard, no political power, however small - should go waste.
Just imagine if Sen McConnell had not pulled a Garland and then only to have Trump elected.
He would not be able to look himself in the mirror.
His political enemies would drive him out of town - heck, he may even have to change his State of residence.
So, you may think that deferring to voters is a lame excuse - ask Harry Reid what he now thinks of his nuclear option.
1
The simple fact is, the argument that impeachment overturns the results of the election and, therefore, should not be pursued is ludicrous on its face. If it were true, then no impeachment proceeding -- not Johnson's, not Nixon's, not Clinton's -- should have happened then, and none should ever occur now or in the future.
Clearly, NOT what the founders envisioned and decided.
Just one more example of the Republicans' shamelessness.
10
When the west, led by Texas, turns blue in 4 to 8 years (hastened by a calamitous 2nd Trump term), the Republicans will be anti-electoral college again.
11
@Michael Judge
Will the Democrats then be for it ?
1
Thank you, Frank Bruni!
To me what is going on with the President's defense team and their attacks on the House Managers' evidence and presentations can be likened to complaining that the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger to stop the leak in the dike used the wrong finger! The President and the Republicans have all been flailing at the failures of process, crying crocodile tears. It doesn't matter how we stop the leak in the dike, as long as it is done. We have major leaks in the dikes protecting our democracy, and with global warming exacerbating sea levels, our country's institutions and constitution that have served to protect us all, even if it has taken long and arduous fights for some, risk being drowned and lost forever.
5
Yes. Give the people the power, get rid of the electoral college. And the legislators should do their job, you know represent their constituents, protect the minorities from majorities, legislate in the interest of the greater good, you know - of the people. Oh I forgot, corporations are people too.
4
This moment is truly demoralizing.
Although I actually support a few of Trump’s policies, I find Trump himself to be a vile creature.
But my feelings aren’t important. The crucial issue is that Senate Republicans have turned serious charges against the president into an absolute farce.
It would be acceptable if they turned over every stone, i.e. demanded witness testimony and further evidence, and then decided Trump did not meet the standard for impeachment.
But to watch McConnell and Graham and the other bootlickers close their eyes and clog their ears is almost too much to bear.
8
The voters of what country exactly?
6
T and the GOP lawyers are a total laughing disgrace to the legal profession. There are legitimate (though weak in my opinion) arguments against the House's articles. But to in effect argue that the clauses on impeachment are unconstitutional is beyond belief because they might upset the election of a president by (a minority of) the voters.
The Democrat Senators should stand as a group and burst out laughing when that is put forward.
3
When he looses he won’t leave. There will be irregularities. He has no plans to give power to anyone
5
Get rid of Citizens United ruling, get the lobbyists, big money out of politics
Get rid of Electoral College, decision by popular vote
Shorten the election cycle to 6 weeks to 2 months MAX
Put a maximum of 3 terms on Senators, 6-7 terms for Representatives
Get rid of the "sitting President shall NOT be indicted" clause
8
Thank-you Frank Bruni. Many agree with this sorry defense for the President's impeachable behavior. Yet, if they really want the people to decide about impeachment, then let's have the documents and witnesses subpoenaed so we get the full story to understand just how illegal Trump was in his actions. They can't have it both ways. Like this opinion piece suggests, I was under the impression that the Senate was the more deliberative body, more tied to Constitutional history and tradition, less political and more theoretical in knowledge. That was ALL true of the Democratic managers from the House, and the Democratic senators I've heard comment on these issues in the media. Yet, the Republicans in leadership, and this defense team think we are all idiots and can't see they are attempting to defend the president by attacking the process and the messengers versus the actual behavior of the president. He is guilty by his own words and actions. He stated he wanted Ukraine and China to investigate the Bidens. He demanded that their be no documents or witnesses granted. Inviting foreign influence in our elections is illegal. Defying lawful subpoenas is illegal. If he thought there was reason to investigate the Bidens, he had two years with Republican leadership in the majority and he could have done it. He did NOT. There was no reason, other than his desire to smear an opponent that was polling much better than he. Justice must be served. The day of reckoning will come.
9
Removal of Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of justice still leaves the country with Republican Mike Pence, so the Democrats aren’t gaining anything politically by removing Trump. However, the the American people are the beneficiaries of removal of a dangerous, treacherous, pro-authoritarian, Russian sympathizer. The Ukrainian, Polish, and German people are safer as well, as Trump would probably come up with some great propaganda justifying Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.
11
"The framers, in fact, wanted a government that wasn’t too sensitive to voters…"
This is absolutely true. And it's also the reason our Constitution is a failure. The framers greatly mistrusted government by a people's assembly. They created a popular assembly—the House—but then checked it by denying it executive power and instead giving that most essential power to a president and by creating a second legislative body, the Senate, to limit the House's power. Neither the president nor the Senate were directly elected by the people. Senators were originally appointed by state legislatures. The Constitution also requires no popular election for the Electoral College, and early on many states simply appointed their electors, holding no popular election for the President at all.
Distrusting the people and fearing rule by a mob, the framers instead—in true Enlightenment Fashion—felt they could create a perfectly calibrated machine where the various spheres of government balanced each other with forces of push and pull preventing any from flying out of orbit. The people might be the prime mover, but the machine would operate mostly without them.
In fact—contrary to the framers' belief—the best control on the government is a popular assembly, a parliament, responsible for both the executive and legislative functions of government and highly responsive to the people's will through regular direct elections. The framer's contraption is not working. It's time to try real democracy.
4
Franklin asked what the alternative to impeachment was. His own answer was assassination. Impeachment won the day as an amendment to the Constitution because none of the framers wanted a coup d'état as a way of removing a rogue president.
5
It is far too late to let the people's vote stand either way, since by any sane accounting Clinton actually won the election in 2016. It is a bit lame to claim respect for the voters choice, when they didn't chose Trump in the first place.
If Republican really want the people's choice to be the deciding factor they would dissolve the Trump administration and place Hillary in the White House. I do not recommend holding your breath.
7
Bravo! The whole argument that we must only allow the voters to weigh in on and decide the articles of impeachment- abuse of power and obstruction of Congress - is absurd. An exquisite piece by Frank Bruni.
5
Trump's lackeys concede that Trump extorted an ally in an indisputable attempt to corrupt the 2020 election. Corrupting the integrity of an election surely qualifies as a high crime. Should this high crime be prevented? The impeachment trial gives Senators a chance to answer that question. Claiming that we should just wait until November is a dereliction of their Constitutional duty which would call into question the reliability of all future elections.
5
Does any of this approach imply that the Rs are not interested in having President Pence in office? Will we see Nikki Haley on the 2020 ticket?
1
Send in the clowns. Better yet the magicians. Nothing like being entertained, distracted while being fooled. We the people need four profiles in courage to rid ourselves of clowns and magicians in favor of compelling evidence. A word of warning for McConnell and the gang. A loyalty acquittal guarantees this story will not end. A story punctuated by damaging revelations though the summer and early Fall. A McConnell cover up revealed. The truth percolates to the surface.
6
The GOP doesn't care about the Constitution, they don't care about a criminal grifter that has shown himself to be aligned with Putin, and they don't care about the majority of Americans that want a fair trial. All they care about is the next election and staying in power. It is a sad day in the United states but that is the truth and we must face it.
8
I don't get it. If the republican senators vote to remove trump from office, then he'll be gone, powerless, unable to hold mindless rallies or tweet jerky insults at them on twitter. Then they'd have Pence, who their base voted for as president-in-waiting and who they could then claim as their brilliant leader, or however they want to spin it. They've already got their judges, their billionaire tax cuts. I just don't see how clinging to this contemptible man improves their political prospects.
8
When there is no legitimate defense, Defense Attorneys turn to absurdity. What does this tell you about Donald Trump's innocence?
5
Joke, whatever. Republicans have become so cynical, so bereft of any sense of right and wrong that, with them, anything that has any chance of "working" is okay, the god of the Republicans and of the Evangelical so-called "Christians" said so.
5
If younger folks would only get out and vote, we could banish the McConnells and his like to the dustbin of history.
9
If Trump shot someone in the gallery during his impeachment trial, they would still vote 53-47 to acquit.
If he shot a Republican Senator, the vote would be 52-47.
16
That’s hilarious!
2
So, now these people want to listen to will of the people. What a concept!
1
As a Canadian I am aghast and profoundly rattled by what is happening in the impeachment trial of Donald J Trump, I could only imagine how many Americans feel. From what I have heard and seen I can only surmise that America is entering a pre-fascist political landscape in a post-truth world, where Republicans argue the impeachment process, set out in the constitution is unconstitional ????, as headlined in the Daily Beast. This is definitely a head scratcher. The reason Republicans argue that abusive of power is not impeachable is because they believe the President Trump committed abuse of power. How are Americans suppose to accept that there is no remedy to hold an President accountable for Abuse of powers? Are the American people expected to accept that the new normal is allowing a corrupt President who doesn’t consider their own national security on par with his own political ambitions? That elections are free game rife with foreign interference done at the behest of American enemies and the President himself?Ask yourself what happens when people can no longer trust their country to do the right thing. Maybe this sounds alarmist but watching the unmaking of a great country is no small thing besides what else am I to believe.
11
What's happening in the senate right now is the republican party making sure that their candidate (trump) has the right to stay in power despite past and ongoing misdeeds and to proceed with his ongoing efforts to rig the 2020 election, albeit with the aid of a foreign government. Their argument for doing so is that anything to prevent that outcome (which would create a president Pence) constitutes the undoing of an election. Do they really think we are that dumb? Just admit that democracy and fair elections no longer means anything to their party. That's what this whole thing is about at this juncture.
9
Republican and Trumpian inconsistency and hypocrisy is so common, it’s old news, cliched news, expected, certain. Whatever they want, they invent a justification.
Yes, using their logic, Congress should adjourn until next year. Can we stop paying them?
Trump’s only unwavering commitment is to his mentor Roy Cohn’s playbook—deny, hit back harder, demean the opposition, never give in.
5
Why would you, a columnist of your stature, sensitive to language, careful with words, use the ableist term "lame?" It promotes discrimination against people with physical disabilities in favor of those who do not have disabilities.
1
Oh for heaven’s sake. This is the least important item in the story. Most of us long ago stopped using “lame” to describe a person with a gait abnormality. The term has entered the language as a perfectly apt metaphor for an argument or point of view that doesn’t have a solid foundation. It’s “aching-to-be-offended” outbursts like this that make real liberal thinkers hard to take seriously. I’m one.
2
The Republicans don't seem to be taking into account he possibility that the voters will take matters into their own hands, and vote them all right out of office for dereliction of duty. Their performance has been an utter disgrace and nothing would make me happier right now than for us the voters to give them a collective kiss good bye.
4
I'd bet a lot that those comments from the defense are not intended for the Senators. The Senators know that's a ridiculous assertion. They were intended to rile up Trump's base.
2
Watching the trial for five days now, I come away with several firm conclusions: lawyers will say ANYTHING if it helps their argument; and lying is the new way of talking. Maybe they're the same thing. Amazed at how people can stare into the camera with a straight face, perhaps with a wry smile and repeat outright falsehoods.
If my grammar school principle, Sr. Marcelline, were around with her bar of soap, ...Oh Boy!
3
From commenter Socrates: "And all of this [impeachment] is set against the well-documented Republican panorama of widespread voter suppression laws and tactics, voter file purges, black-box-vote-counting, Olympic gerrymandering, state-run-corporate-FOX News propaganda and the successful 2000 Presidential Election Heist by the Bush-Cheney-GOP and the Supreme Republican Court ."
Sums it up nicely.
7
A whole lot of writing about a done deal. No GOP senator is interested in upholding their oath of office. It's blatantly obvious every last one of them is corrupt to the bone. Trump is right, he could shoot someone on 5th avenue and his support would not change.
5
This congress should account for the waste, opportunity cost and politically-driven damages caused by Schiff & Company’s three years of lying and perpetuating a weak case to remove a political rival. Saturday’s few hours of the President’s initial fact-based rebuttal is more convincing than all the Dem’s lecturing, shaming and accusations. Their confusing return to Russian collusion and certainty of Trump’s motives are heartfelt, but with no direct evidence. Obama’s nod to Medvedev and IRS attacks on conservative non-profits are real and worse than the case presented here. And Obama wasn’t—and shouldn’t have—been impeached. The only remaining questions are: One: Will the Dems resign en masse or pay damages for their irresponsible use of our taxes and the government apparatus and Two: Why the heck has Bruni and all the mainstream media rallied behind this misguided cause? (And I did not vote for Trump)
Nice thoughts Mr B but all this kind of ignores the plain fact that the GOP is entirely dishonest and the arguments made by them are in the blackest of bad faith.
2
It's obvious -
There is only one way to break the death grip Trump holds on the Presidency and the Senate Republicans - that is to vote him, and them - out of office.
Yes, that means waiting until November; and I dread their lame duck antics into January, 2021 if they do lose bigly, but it's the only remaining, and, in the end the best way to rid America of this disgraceful administration.
Biden or Bloomberg/Klobuchar should be able to take the WH and with long coattails flip the Senate. Not to mention padding the House majority, and picking up some governorships and State legislatures down ticket.
4
Please. Wake up. The voters' will was Clinton, by almost 3 million. See--we aren't a democracy. Remember that.
3
Republican Senators ought to have the spine, or, at least, the self-awareness, to declare that their true loyalty is to Donald Trump, not the U.S. Constitution. Any pretensions to the contrary become more absurd by the day.
4
more to the point of let the voters decide, is actually to let everyone actually vote!
4
Spot on, Frank. The paragraph beginning with "If Republican leaders..." put it all in a nutshell. Excellent article, Frank, and will share it with friends.
All excellent thoughts, Frank, but countering obfuscation and buffoonery with reasoned arguments is like spitting into the wind. The Trump defense is all theater for people who pay only glancing attention to national events. I'm afraid your intelligent arguments penetrate their reality no better than the contrails of a jetliner at 30,000 feet. If Cipollone and his partners can land a sound bite or two on the always confused American voter, they will have accomplished their missions.
4
The Framers also didn’t foresee direct election of US Senators. As someone else pointed out this week, perhaps if the state legislatures sent US Senators to the chamber, you’d have a body that wasn’t dependent on the President for their re-election. Based on the 100 “independent jurors” I’m watching wander around this week — and were that I were on a jury where I could just get up and walk out for a bit, maybe check my phone, call my friends, hit the bathroom, call the whole trial “bo-ring” — I’m persuaded direct election may be a bad thing.
4
In the near future, Frank will tell us how the youthful and inexperienced Mayor Pete will save us. Yawn.
1
"No one ever thought that it would be a good idea for our country — for our children, for our grandchildren — to try to remove a president from a ballot, to deny the American people the right to vote.”
Really? HUH! So the massive gerrmandering by Republicans to deny certain voters the full weight of their vote isn't the same thing? Or stonewalling the investigation into Russian interference in 2016 and since so that we're unable to have a fair election isn't the same thing?
As with all things Republican, facts are only useful if they support their case, otherwise, they're completely optional. The fact is that the Republicans have always engaged in voter suppression, especially in areas heavily populated by minorities, so to claim that the Constitutionally-prescribed process of impeachment to remove a corrupt President is "denying people their vote" is ludicrous and hypocritical. Just another chapter in the Republican Big Book of Lies.
5
America is a republic, not a democracy, unless the GOP needs it to be a democracy for their purposes
1
Well then, based on Real Clear's average, 47.2% of voters want Trump removed.
Since Trump only received 45.9% of votes cast (27.6% of eligible voters and 16.7% of the U.S. population at that time), Republicant's should support his removal.
Never mind that millions of people who voted not for Trump, but for the "Republican" and/or against Hillary LOL!
2
Normalization. A perfect example of how the perverse, anti-democratic ploys of the Republicans become normalized in our political discourse.
2
Rich, NYC,
Adam Schiff and Jerrold Nadler have said they have mounds of evidence of President Trump’s guilt. Why haven’t they shown this to the senate. We are waiting.
Politicians have raised billions of dollars in an effort to design a public relations campaign to fool the voters into believing the pol is working for us.
When your job depends on the perennial election cycle and the costly machinery of keeping your seat, the election becomes the most important thing in your life.
But voters think the election is merely preliminary to fulfilling the campaign promises that will make life better for the people.
No wonder "election year" has become the excuse to block action, to do nothing or to do harm and to damage the public image of all politicians.
Note to pols: Your job is governing, not campaigning.
2
The Electoral College must go. Period. But even if it was miraculously eradicated, we still have gerrymandering, foreign interference and cyber "untruth" to deal with. I blame those who wangled Trump into office for the end of America as we've known it. The good guys may win some battles along the way, but the deck is stacked against us, and I fear that nothing less than a new enlightenment will save us. Sadly, with the denigration of truth, education and civil discourse, I see none on the horizon. America was fun while it lasted.
1
I wish Senator John McCain were still alive. Maybe some Senators, like Graham, then would have shown more backbone dealing with Trump.
Let’s remember these words spoken by McCain n the Senate floor said as the Clinton impeachment trial was nearing an end:
“All of my life, I have been instructed never to swear an oath to my country in vain. In my former profession, those who violated their sworn oath were punished severely and considered outcasts from our society.
“I do not hold the President to the same standard that I hold military officers to. I hold him to a higher standard.
“Although I may admit to failures in my private life, I have at all times, and to the best of my ability, kept faith with every oath I have ever sworn to this country. I have known some men who kept that faith at the cost of their lives.
“Presidents are not ordinary citizens. They are extraordinary, in that they are vested with so much more authority and power than the rest of us. We have a right; indeed, we have an obligation, to hold them strictly accountable to the rule of law.”
673
@Jean
Well said. Clinton lied about the sin of his adultery in response to a question that should not have been asked in the first place. He had committed a sin, not a crime, his accountability was to his God, his spouse and the young woman. Not to us, the people.
85
@Jean And McCain voted "guilty" to the charges that Clinton may have lied about sex in a civil lawsuit that was financed by a right wing think tank - and Ken Starr spent $90M on a perjury trap to impeach the president.
Did Clinton commit some impeachable office that affected the country, or some personal misdemeanor: "The president....shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." ? Doesn't the adjective "high" really refer to crimes against the state, and not about misleading testimony in a civil matter?
Well, evidently, Sen McCain first washed away his sins (like throwing away his first wife to marry an heiress, so he could be president someday), and then he made impeachment of Clinton a moral issue. Would McCain, if healthy, even vote to allow evidence in the Senate trial? I'd bet anything that he'd just join the Republican bandwagon of saying the voters should be the jurors, not him. But first, get himself on every Sunday morning talk show umpteen times acting like he might be a swing vote. That's his MO - act like he cares, get on talk shows, and then vote "morally" conservatively.
45
@Jean it's a nice thought, but McCain would have been destroyed by Trump and the Trump roobs would be all in. They are already all in with the lies about the Bidens. The time for attributing any sense of honor to the GOP and the Trump roobs is way past. There is no honor, there is no logic. There is only a significant % of the population that is ripe for being easily led in anarchy and thinking it's justified because a cowardly lying draft dodger says so.
58
This is not intended as a legitimate defense. It is designed to anger voters by proclaiming that Democrats are stealing their election from them. It is in the same vein as Republicans and their media enablers framing Medicare for All as taking away Americans' precious private health insurance. People don't like to have something taken from them.
Even if Trump were convicted and removed from office, I see no legal reason why he could not remain on the ballot in 2020.
132
@CH The Constitution is clear on what can be done. Article I, Section 3 says, “Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.” However it does not state that both options MUST be done.
16
@LesISmore Yes, it means both because it states "and" not "or". Alternatively it may have stated: "and, optionally," to mean one or the other but not necessarily both. However, it states plainly "and" meaning both.
41
@CH If the Senate removed him (not likely) it would almost surely say he is disqualified from holding any other office.
20
As a relative newcomer to closely following politics in this country I am astounded by the Republicans ability to make up the rules as they go along to suit themselves. I’m sure Mitch McConnell has been doing this for years but the Merrick Garland debacle was the issue that fully exposed for me the corrupt power Republicans wield in our government. It was bad enough the treatment Obama received from Republicans with McConnell being the ring leader. But the abuse of power we are witnessing now is far more dangerous to the stability of our democracy and to our childrens’ future than anything we’ve experienced thus far in our country’s history. I fear for our nation.
989
@Mimie McCarley Our nation is indeed going in the wrong direction.
"Lawmakers are elected specifically to speak for voters on crucial issues. That’s the system. That’s their job."
Lawmaker no longer care about the will of the American people or their jobs. They took an oath to the US Constitution to protect us and our national security and they don't care about either. It is indeed frightening times.
49
@Mimie McCarley Makeup the rules? This Party has been making up reality (!) since Trump came in.
53
@Mimie McCarley
Yes but I think Americans will not have learned anything after five more years of Trump and his gang leaders like McConnell. I truly think that Trump's supporters have a death wish for America as long as they can be entertained by all his lies to them at those entertainment rallies Trump holds for them.
29
"To pre-empt the verdict at the ballot box, they say, is to subvert the people’s will."
This argument is based on an emotional sleight-of-hand. It feels like if Trump is removed, Hillary Clinton will suddenly become president.
That isn't what will happen. Pence will be sworn in, and the team they elected will still hold the White House. To use a sports metaphor, the second string will be called off of the bench and take the field.
The entire fear of the 2016 election being overturned is the triumph of emotion over reason, and I have little doubt that it is intentional.
6
You are right Mr. Bruni, the voters don't matter.
They serve as props and sentence fillers to create confusion and strenghten lies.
These are sad times for us, the voters who will still go and vote, still believing that it will make a difference in our life and especially our children and grandchildren's future.
Reading about the Great Depression and the effect of the dust storms on migration, it struck me how hunger, literally the lack of food, played a major part in galvanizing the people to organize and the government to provide jobs creating the infrastructure we still use.
Unfortunately, a good part of the people are not hungry for food, and care less for the truth and justice.
As a society, we are doomed.
2
"The assertion that an election next November forbids honor this January is a joke, and the framers would have laughed at it."
No, Frank, they wouldn't have laughed. They would have shuddered at it.
But in our Congress--on both sides of the aisle--elections seem to forbid honor pretty much all the time. Such is our nation.
What chaps my hide is that the electoral college seemed to get 45 Three Million votes more than Hillary and also George W won because of the electoral college. Now as of the 2016 election we also have to deal with foreign interference in our elections.
The interference in our election must be dealt with but republicans are not going to look too closely at the problem as long as it is in their favor.
The electoral college must be removed also if we are to have fair elections. I personally don't have a clue who or how we could get rid of the electoral votes but this needs to be done.
One person, One vote!
6
@DC Dubya and Trump, who both "won" with fewer votes, have proven to be disasters for the country and the world. Good luck getting the Republicans to retire the Electoral College, though.
1
The reason Adam Schiff’s ‘head on a pike’ comment infuriated Republican senators is because they know it is true and do not like to be reminded of it. Trump has so emasculated his party’s House and Senate legislators that they must daily check the president’s position, then align their comments and behavior with his. Their interest is remaining in office, not serving the country. And they were reminded of the incongruence of their actions with the duties they have sworn to uphold in Schiff’s concluding remarks Friday: they know the truth, they know what is right, but they are unable to bring themselves to act on it because Trump’s millions of supporters in their districts or states will turn them out of office if they stand up to him. That’s where the real shame of America resides: the 63 million voters who chose Trump in 2016.
767
@Ockham9 True, but I can not fully blame 63 million- many are friends and family members- for becoming part of a cult.
I can fully blame the Republican party for giving themselves over to the cult, and for elevating the cult leader to the position of president.
It's not so much the 63 million who have led us on the road to ruin; it's the leaders who knew we were on the road to ruin and didn't stop us when there might have been a chance.
Following on M. Goldberg's excellent piece- it's hard to be hopeful when all evidence says that the normal order is hopelessly corrupted.
47
@Ockham9 After the Access Hollywood tape was released, Republicans had a moment to save their party. They didn’t. Instead, they embraced the pornstar scandal president and the fix was in. There is no dignity in the GOP now. They are sycophants, nursing the fragile ego of a President who knows at his core (after all, he had Michael Cohen threaten harm to any school that released his academic records) that he does not belong in the Oval Office. His trampling of the Constitution will be what history notes, that the system of checks and balances that has worked for the nation for so long is now irreparably broken. have
53
@Ockham9 And you know, I don't understand why these senators are so afraid of their Trump-loving constituents. They are loud and abrasive, but they are only a minority. Only 40% of the population are Trump devotees. That leaves 60% of us who aren't. We just have to get our 60% to get out there and vote!
I haven't been a Republican for over forty years, but if I were, I would vote for any Republican who had the gumption to stand up to Trump. If my Republican candidate were on Trump's Enemies List, that is something that I would consider a badge of honor, and an indication of his or her integrity and courage. He or she would absolutely get my vote and the vote of everyone that I knew. But if that Republican were a groveling, sniveling, spineless, boot-licking coward who bowed and scraped and kissed Trump's ring? No way he or she would ever get my vote. I do not support tyrants or tyrant-enablers.
28
Most adults have at sometime worked in a place where the wrong person was hired. When the new hire looks to be a bad hire supervisors decide how long to give her/him to fit in before easing them out. Typically that is weeks or a few months. It is never years. As of today it is 361 days until the next presidential inauguration.
President Trump has repeatedly and consistently demonstrated that he is a bad hire incapable of doing the most important job on the planet. If the Republican party had integrity they would have removed him from office sometime in 2017.
1205
@Hineni47 : Unfortunately, your last sentence, while obviously true, is a counterfactual conditional.
20
@Ellen Valle:" Unfortunately, your last sentence, while obviously true, is a counterfactual conditional."
I know. That is the core of our problem;loyalty to party over country.
41
@Hineni47 Continuing your analogy a bit further -
If the new hire was discovered to be inept, they might be given those few weeks or months to grow into the job or attain the necessary skills.
If it was discovered the new hire was stealing from the cash register and selling trade secrets to competitors, they'd be gone in a New York second and possibly indicted.
Trump is the latter.
68
Trump has no case. No matter, his attorneys will jawbone this to death to create the appearance of a defense. They'll lie endlessly in hopes of creating confusion in the minds of the public, even if only Republican partisans believe the lies.
Adam Schiff put on the most excellent prosecution imaginable. Schiff has all the facts at his fingertips, more so than any other attorney or any other politician including those who took part in this illegal scheme against Ukraine. He has a clear, legally-trained mind. His knowledge of the facts and the law are amazing. In addition, he has the ability to make clear and convincing arguments using an easy to follow narrative and easy to understand, careful analysis that he articulates beautifully. No better case could possibly be made that Trump MUST be removed from office.
In addition, Schiff was able to rebut all of Trump's attorneys bogus statements immediately after they had finished with their lies and distortions. Schiff's press rebuttal was far better than a team of top attorneys could have done even if given hours to prepare.
But I fear none of this matters because Republicans are not interested in protecting the Constitution, the Rule of law or democracy nor do they intend to honor their oath to do so.
34
Exactly. The impeachment has nothing to do with nullifying elections or even the will of the people (which, as you pointed out, is a hypocritical argument anyway because the popular vote doesn't count). What the impeachment is about is upholding the rule of law, defending the constitution, preventing corruption, and carrying out Congress's duties and responsibilities. Giving Trump a pass is a catastrophically bad precedent to set.
13
Why is everyone forgetting the election of 2018? The people spoke and overwhelmingly gave the House to Democrats, so that they would rein in the out of control President.
17
The GOP Senate is obstructing justice in supporting DT's corruption. It is not a trial unless witnesses and evidence is presented.
6
A closely related Republican talking point is that impeachment would be "nullifying an election." This is said over and over again, even though it is utter nonsense. if Trump had been impeached shortly after the 2016 election, that might have been "nullification." Instead he is impeached for abuses taken over a three year presidency and brought to a head by his actions in the Ukraine "drug deal," plus his obstruction of a legitimate House impeachment investigation.
Arguments like these are blowing smoke to try and confuse an American public that unfortunately is woefully ignorant (or perhaps worse, apathetic) about constitutional issues and foreign policy. We hear statements that say, not quite explicitly, "Who needs democracy if we have good employment statistics?" That is equivalent to the supporters of Benito Mussolini saying that "He made the trains run on time."
In this case it is likely that the American people will see through these arguments, but the Republican senators live in fear of the wrath of Trump and his hard core base of Republican voters. I suspect that what they fear most is that if Trump is removed from office he will destroy the Republican Party by forming some kind of split-off.
15
It's all just insanity. McConnell could say that a Pelican is actually an Owl, and we'd be debating that for a decade.
What if the Fuller Brush Salesman came to your door to try to sell you a brush. Once he realizes that you don't want a brush, he asks you what you DO want. You say a new couch would be nice. The salesman then whips out a brush and says that it's the world's most compact and convenient self cleaning, multi-tasked couch!
Republican lawmakers are selling us brushes. They have learned that fantasy sells better than reality. John Wayne and Walt Disney are now Donald Trump and Fox News.
8
Sure, let the voters decide. With a one off, one person=one vote referendum. How soon can this be scheduled?
3
Actually, the nations bbusxqness will continue unhindered if the so called congress and political appointees go home, most probably better than ever.
You are not naive to think politicians and political appointees manage this country, do you?
We should get of all political appointees to Federal agencies and have all agencies and see whether or not the career professionals is capable of running agencies lawfully, ethically and efficiently.
My guess they will!
Looking around the Senate chamber, I 'see' a parallel reality with a prison exercise yard. Little knots of men looking over their shoulders to see who might be listening, while perpetually plotting and conniving.
And I dare say the prevalent value system on a prison compound and in the Republican Senate is IDENTICAL. Where the order of the day, of every single moment, is unbridled treachery and deception. Having spent five years in state and federal joints, I promise you, they are exactly the same, occupied by equally self-serving vultures.
5
It boggles the imagination that 45's corrupt & malicious attempt to promote his personal political agenda could be ignored by the Senate.
Having lived through the Watergate era, the botched break-in of DNC headquarters & subsequent cover-up pale in comparison with the current situation. The only real similarity between then and now was the hateful vilification of the press and the mental instability of the president.
It's clear that the GOP/McConnell controlled Senate is using its power only to maintain it. The Constitution means nothing to them. To state that 45 "has done nothing wrong" in the face of a mountain of evidence to the contrary is farcical. The "it's all based on hearsay" argument fails given the written & taped documentation that the House was able to obtain against all odds.
The idea that the public should decide by voting in the next election is ludicrous, when the results of the 2018 election made it clear that a majority of Americans were already fed up with the ignorant incompetence of the Executive Branch.
Tthe touted legislative "victories" of the GOP have eviscerated the progress made under the Clinton/Obama administrations. The tax reform package that accrued only to the wealthy & corporations, the rollback of environmental & business regulations, & the gutting of numerous safety net programs demonstrate their disregard for the public interest.
Senators were elected to represent the good of the people. It's time that they actually do so!
5
Looking for principles in Republicans' arguments and actions is a waste of time; better to remember Vince Lombardi's mantra: "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."
3
Reversing an election would mean all executive orders revoked, the new tax code rescinded, and the removal of all the new conservative judges. Oh and Hillary would be installed as President.
Impeachment and removal would result in none of this so let’s stop this silly claim. Conviction in the Senate would leave everything in place with Pence simply moving up. So much for overturning an election.
6
The elephant in the room is that Trump is betraying America, and that the Republicans are providing him cover.
The strongest reason to impeach and convict Trump is that he endangers our National Security by repeatedly and consistently aiding a foreign power, Russia.
Secretary Clinton pointed out that Trump is Putin’s puppet. Speaker Pelosi told Trump that all roads lead to Putin with him. They are both entirely correct.
Convicted felons Roger Stone and Paul Manafort know the details of this, but they will not talk because Trump promised to pardon them if they keep quiet.
Trump’s tax returns would also show that he is in hock to Putin-connected Russian oligarchs, which is why Trump is so desperate to hide his financial records. Mueller was prevented from investigating Trump’s finances by Rod Rosenstein, and William Barr terminated the investigation prematurely.
Remarkably, virtually the entire Republican delegation in Congress is in complete denial of all of this.
The GOP has become the Gang of Putin!
9
If an employee is known to steal and the employer knowingly retains the employee, the employer forfeits any right of insurance recovery for future theft. The actuaries know there will be future theft.
5
We have become no better than Russia! Makes sense now. How easily all republicans embraced and worked with Vladimir Putin and continue. The corruption of the party has been obvious for years. Now what? Taking Trump out leaves everything and worse that brought him. I do not see how this ends without massive disruption on a world scale.
2
Leave it to the Voters?
Then STOP limiting the vote!
Let’s have paper ballots. Automatic registration from age 18. Plenty of polling places - not matter the economics of the district. An end to gerrymandering. Ranked choice voting. And get the money out of politics by allowing only citizens to contribute to elections. And citizen means an actual flesh and blood person.
7
The Republican logic is deeply tied to an attitude that rejects government. It's a colossal machine that wastes taxpayer money. Make those guys do nothing for a year? They don't do anything anyway.
The imaginary kingdom of Republican dreams is a place like Somalia, where the government really has little power, where no one pays taxes, where the government does nothing. The rich have their armies, and the rest cower. Of course most Republicans don't think through their dreams to this logical conclusion. So they celebrate the idea that no decisions be made until the election.
To paraphrase Einstein, a government should be as small as possible, but no smaller. The US government, other than its military, has fewer employees per capita than almost any other in the OECD. So it's actually too small already, but Republicans are on a mission to shrink it to baby size, then strangle.
That's why it's so easy to claim the election trumps legislation, confirmation, or impeachment. Their party embraces the idea that government is useless.
Early in his or her career every lawyer hears something to the effect of this: "When the law is on your side, argue the law. When the facts are on your side, argue the facts. And when neither is on your side, pound the table."
The law is not on the GOP's side. They essentially argue that a president cannot be charged with a crime while in office but that a crime is what is needed to impeach. They also argue that he can direct witnesses not to cooperate due to "executive privilege". There is no language supporting these positions in the Constitution or the Framers' statements.
The facts are not on the GOP's side. No need to recount them here. They look bad for Trump. He would not even release a full transcript of the call with the Ukrainian president.
So now we are getting "pound the table" from the GOP. "The process is a hoax!" "They are trying to undo the election!" "They are trying to take the power from the people!" "The media is hysterical and unhinged!"
When "pound the table" is now the GOP's best defense, it seems pretty clear this president should be impeached.
8
Fine explanation, Frank. When we are faced with an implementation of the Constitution, such as Impeachment of an elected or appointed official and the accused stonewalls and lies to make us all seem ignorant, we must have faith and intelligence and aqn informed historical ethic to push back against the corrupt body or bodies.
People may have forgotten that the Republican Congress which refused to work during President Barack Obama's Administration…one year they clocked in for 126 days and expected a full ration as if they had done something other than obstruct.
Now they have gotten used to their boated bellies and refuse to get in shape. We will die and leave this body behind or we will survive and be just as hardy, but they will disappear and their lands will be applied to the benefit of the greater good.
1
McConnell is also up for re-election in 2020.
5
Trump is asserting that the Congress cannot remove a President from office because the President is elected by the people. It’s just blather intended to whip up his Republican base to pressure the Republican Senators to acquit him.
3
Did you not see the answers from 81 people the other day in this paper, Frank? Have of them don't know what's happening in the Impeachment trial and don't care about it. A good percentage of them don't know one thing about the Constitution or why it matters. They don't think his behavior was any big deal. They get their info strictly from FOX. Lies are OK as long as they don't have to dig deeper.
Trump isn't going anywhere, sadly. He represents many people -- crude, under educated, angry and swayed by their own small interests. They cheat, lie, argue, malign and do what they can to not pay taxes. Trump is the base and the base is Trump. Has nothing to do with upcoming elections and everything to do with poor public school education that has been slowly killed over the last 50 years. Horrible to think of four more years of DJT, but it's very possible.
3
Agree with Mr. Bruni and still it all comes down to this: are enough thinking Americans paying attention and will they vote in November? Throw in Republican voter suppression and welcomed Russian election interference and the ouster of this corrupt administration becomes even more problematic.
2
I am amused in a morbid way by the hypocrisy of the president's attorneys and their Republican supporters. They tell us that for the Senate to remove the president now under the impeachment clauses of the constitution would be to "rip up" the ballots of the people in November. But when I complained 3 1/2 years ago that the people elected Hillary Clinton, they patronizingly told me that the constitution gives the power to select the president to the electoral college, not to the people.
Therefore, I guess, the constitutional should control the vote of the people at one end, but not the other.
2
Trump engaged in blackmail. There is no question of that. Why are Dems not calling it by its name? It is actually illegal, and therefore not subject to the debate about “improper influence.” I’m baffled.
1
Many of us on the left have bought into the false narrative that Trump lost the popular count by ONLY 3 million votes. That just how much Hillary beat him by. In truth over 11 million more votes were cast for candidates that were NOT Trump in the 2016 election. And that was before he turned out to be unimaginably worse than anyone predicted. I think the fear we all have now that this outrage could be repeated in 2020 is good. We're on our toes. But he's already a giant loser with most of the larger public. Fox props him up with greater and greater difficulty. He and his Friends have zero credibility with non-dittoheads. Since day one of this farce against democracy I've wondered how much rope it will take for Trump & gang to hang themselves. It's taken much more than I thought, but I believe the sham trial in the Senate will finally be it. The Republican suppression of the truth will be rocket fuel for Dems come November. So go ahead, do your worst, you nasty Trumpies. The country and world are watching - and chomping at the bit for the 2020 losing landslide you deserve.
3
We fear the peoples' will this coming Presidential Election. We fear the kleptocracy of President Trump and his base of willing executioners. The young Founding Fathers of America are spinning in their graves at how our democracy has gone awry. As long as there are no term limits for Congressmen whose seats are sinecures for decades, and the partisan electors decide an election over the peoples' votes, is as long as we'll face the trumpian trainwreck of our failed democracy.
1
The extent to which our government can go into suspended animation, it should do so once, most assume, the Senate fails to convict Trump of the high crimes and misdemeanors he has committed. I wish we could also stop Trump from install more henchmen has more civil servants quit.
Frighteningly, there is still much more damage that Trump can do to this nation and the world, backed by a cult following which includes the Republican party and The Cabinet.
1
The Republican argument is indeed fallacious.
If someone is caught cheating on a test, he is expelled from the room and gets a zero. He has forfeited his right to participate. If an olympic sprinter cheats by stepping in front of his opponent, he is disqualified. He loses his right to participate.
President Trump cheated to gain favor in the upcoming election. Once proven, disqualification followed through impeachment and in a fair world, removal from office would be the result. He would thereby forfeit his right to participate in the next election. That is, forfeit his right to let the American people decide.
1
Gee, I think the voters picked the President who nominated Merrick Garland, did they not?
“Give the people back their power", yet another example of GOP hypocrisy. Will it ever end?
Thank you for writing this!
For the past several years, I've been wondering who would find a way to make this point. The idea, coming from McConnell and others, that elected officials doing their job doesn't count as the result of elections has been accepted by far too many in the mainstream press. It is wholly ludicrous, and any commentator who accepts it as a valid point should be shamed for their idiocy.
As you suggest, the logical outcome of this attitude is to invalidate Congress in general--or at least every Democrats' vote (since it's Republicans, so far, who make this case).
Perhaps the most curious quality of this argument is how "progressive" it is, albeit in a cynical mood. It's progressive in that it seeks to invalidate the present in the name of the future. It's cynical because this future is imagined to be determined by holding onto power, rather than transforming it. It imagines a future that's only acceptable if it resembles the past.
We might as well say that it doesn't matter who wins the primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire, since that person will only be invalidating the last election....
1
One party plays by the rules, the other has a different set of rules that condone, allow and applaud cheating, lying, and obfuscation.
One party and its' candidates attempt to tell the truth, the other party supports a pathologic liar. In playing by the rules, one party honors decency, civility, and ethical behavior, realizing that playing by the rules benefits the entire enterprise. The other party turns a blind eye to how destructive and divisive not playing by the rules is, and will continue to cheat and lie. The fix is in. There are no referees or rules officials, but rather those who claim the rules don't apply to them (the list is long). It's no wonder that those of us who abide by the rules are so frustrated by the game being played out. Perhaps blue states should secede and let the opposition have their own vote in November.
1
Once the GOP Senate annoints DT dictator, in about 2 weeks, there will be no election. He's already laying the foundation claiming that the 2020 election may be fraudulent. He may just say that the 2020 election has to be suspended while he "investigates" it. DT can't risk the slightest possibility that he will he voted out of office. He "cant do it?" Really. Who's going to stop him from doing anything? Look at Brazil. That's where we'll be in 2 weeks.
3
And let us not leave out the impact of ignoring Trump's violations of the Constitution. If Senate Republicans "exonerate" Trump that will give him license to bypass the Constitution yet again in 2020. What remedy could prevent it? Impeach him again? And if Trump felt he was going to lose, why wouldn't he try even more extreme violations of the law?
4
It doesn’t matter how poor Trump’s defense is, no Republican is changing their mind. McConnell has convinced his caucus that they better tow the party line or the voters will be the least of their worries. If McConnell gets his way and quickly ends the show trial, it might be the best outcome for Democrats. Senators can get back to campaigning and Trump can make a fool of himself bragging through out his entire State of the Union speech. The facts will come out soon enough and maybe the Supreme Court might force the release of Trump’s taxes. Of course nothing will change a single Republican vote, but hopefully Democrats and remaining undecided voters will be enraged enough to all vote for a single alternative.
158
@DO5, just a thought: assuming that Trump indeed skates on impeachment, I wonder what kind of reception he will receive at the State of the Union address. Will Democrats be as hypocritical applauding him as Republicans are being in claiming to vindicate him?
9
@DO5 "It doesn’t matter how poor Trump’s defense is, no Republican is changing their mind." In this time of intense division, one could also correctly state "It doesn’t matter how good Trump’s defense is, no Democrat is changing their mind."
Most, if not all, of the Senate knew exactly how they would vote even before the Articles of Impeachment were voted on, let alone waiting for the prosecution and the defense to present their cases.
5
@DO5 Do you think that the Democrats that controlled the Senate should have convicted President Clinton and removed him from office?
After all, he was guilty of lying to a federal Grand Jury, a serious felony under federal law that usually carries prison time.
2
Impeachment can be a wholly partisan action in the House of Representatives as evidenced by the vote to impeach Donald Trump, save a few Democrats. The majority party in the House will always have that power; this time it was the Democrats who had the votes. On the other hand, conviction in the Senate is an entirely different matter requiring a super majority of 67 Senators in favor. Are there likely to be more impeachments in the future by both Democrats and Republicans? Probably yes by its simple majority structure. Are there likely to be convictions in the Senate? Well, it didn’t happen with Bill Clinton and it isn’t going to happen with Donald Trump. Sixty-seven votes to convict, whether it’s a sitting Democratic or Republican president, is a high hurdle. Whose to say what the composition of the House and Senate may look like 25, 50, or 100 years from now. But in the present, removal from office for a first term president is likely only going to occur in the next election cycle. As a practical matter, it’s the only option.
3
I am so happy to read that the Republican senators were outraged by the charge that if they erred in their vote in the impeachment trial now in the Senate, and voted to impeach, or even to ask for other witnesses, Trump would hand them their head on a pike. The truth hurts. Everyone knows there would be more votes of conscience and therefore more votes to impeach if the Republican senators were not afraid of Trump's wrath. Look what happened to Jeff Flake and Bob Corker when these senators spoke out against him. I view Trump's behavior as very dangerous to the survival of the Republic, especially the extortion of Ukraine to smear a political rival, and to the survival of our adherence to Constitutional law. If I were a Republican senator, I hope that I would have the courage to vote to impeach. Those screaming about the head on a pike are cowards and afraid of Trump. They know it is true.
399
@Harold Johnson I often wonder what our country would be like, how these republicans would act, if someone took away don john's phone.
23
@Harold Johnson-I believe if just one principled Republican Senator broke away from the herd, there'd be a stampede.The Republican party knows it is dying from within; Trump's reckless behavior accelerating the demise. In the news, in report after report, documented so clearly in the Mueller investigation and the impeachment inquiry, the evidence Trump routinely and continually abuses his power is clear and compelling. It's time for principled Republicans to stand up and prove their worthy of their office. It's time for them to prove they have done their homework and are "better-informed proxies for the people they represent". If the majority of Americans can see that a mountain of evidence warrants Trump's removal, it shouldn't be a stretch for principled Republicans to see the same and act accordingly.
22
@Harold Johnson
Their angst is real.
4
As our representative democracy crumbles amidst tarnished, if not illegitimate elections; and, our guiding document, the Constitution, is eviscerated; and, the rule of law, led by the Department of Justice, is severely compromised; apathy runs rife among the citizenry. It suggests to me that people have completely lost trust in our government and feel hopelessly unrepresented.
Republicans have already established so many harmful precedents that it may not be possible to save the Republic. We are firmly on a path to authoritarian rule and why the media and the Democrats are not sounding the alarm is astonishing.
For all these reasons, it is imperative that Trump and every Republican involved be abruptly checked, impeached and convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors. It is way past time for loyal and patriotic Americans to take a stand!
The profound apathy in this country belies the peril we face. We most assuredly are moving quickly to an authoritarian regime led by a radicalized minority!
18
@OldLiberal
Well you better join a group in your town and get busy. There is no apathy going on in the cities where I go to protest, their is nothing but energy.
Go to your city council and get busy, there are many people in your state that need to be registered. So many food banks to help , so many letters of telling American stories to the newspaper.
There is much to do
1
@OldLiberal
Apathy is not an excuse for being an informed, critical participant. Citizens do not get a pass; they are rewarding the representatives that advance this mess either by failing to get wise to the lies they are fed or choosing not to vote. If we as a people demanded actual statewomen/men, rather than the charlatans who run, we’d get closer to our Constitution’s ideals.
1
Spot-on Mr. Burni. The quotes in the opinion say more than what is in the opinion.
“Give the people back their power,...” — Kevin McCarthy
“The American people, if they think this is a very significant episode, can take it into account.” —Mitch McConnell
“I really do believe that the best person — group of people — to pick a president are the voters, not a bunch of partisan politicians.” — Lindsey Graham
“No one ever thought that it would be a good idea for our country — for our children, for our grandchildren — to try to remove a president from a ballot, to deny the American people the right to vote.” — Pat Cipollone, one of the president’s lawyers.
What poppycock, from the Cipollone and Republicans leaders in Congress. Perhaps, these Republicans believe voter suppression in Republican controlled states gives power to the people. Perhaps, Republicans believe Russian interference in our elections, on behalf Republicans, gives power to the people. Or Chief Justice Roberts gave power to the people with his vote for Citizen United.
Sadly the nation's fate is in the hands of Republican liars, hypocrites, and faux patriots protecting their political brand. I say that because all evidence the public has been allowed to see indicates that the president has committed high crimes and misdemeanors.
Given the dishonesty displayed by Republicans in Congress the nation is soon to become a kleptocracy — a nation run by criminals.
20
"His [Trump's] Republican supporters say that lawmakers shouldn’t speak for voters on such a crucial issue" as, say, impeachment or the appointment of Supreme Court justices. This is a sacred, rock-solid Republican political principle, until and unless it isn't.
Since his Merrick Garland fiasco, Mitch McConnell has stated outright, for example, that if a Supreme Court vacancy were to emerge today, he would speed Trump's nomination through the senatorial grist mill. So much for principle. It applies only to one agenda.
The hypocrisy would be breathtaking if we retained a capacity to be shocked anymore.
14
This is the same argument Mitch McConnell made in 2016 when he would not allow President Obama's supreme court nominee Merrick Garland to be reviewed by the Senate for confirmation - because an election was near.
Obama was effectively canceled as president of the United States because he was within a year of the end of his term.
Now this astounding nonsense - the nearness of a election to shut down constitutional powers - is in Republican playbook.
9
The Senate was a sop to the South, along with the Electoral College, and the 4/5 counting of slaves. We have gotten rid of the last, but the other two remain. Let's have constitutional amendments (sigh) to eliminate the Senate and the Electoral College. Otherwise, Mitch Mc Connell's slow but insidious effort to reverse the decision of the Civil War will triumph.
In retrospect, maybe we should have let the South go. It is a truly foreign country.
8
The answer? Defeat Mitch McConnell in Kentucky and take back the Senate.
As usual, the DNC is already bombing out. They should be pouring TONS of money into every state where a Republican is up or a Democrat endangered. Maybe get Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates to fund super-pacs with some of their billions to unseat extreme senators like Tom Cotton, James Inhofe, and Cindy Hyde-Smith, as well as the vulnerables like Susan Collins, Joni Ernst, Tom Tillis, etc. There are 23 Republicans and Dems should set their sights on getting at least 20 of those, not 4, 5 or 6.
And get those billionaires who hate Trump to fund legal efforts in every state where they are purging voters and creating voting barriers. EVERY American adult should be able to vote, period.
Bezos is worth $114 billion, Gates $106 billion, and Warren Buffett $80 billion. A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon we're talking about REAL money!
16
@Dadof2
And let's just quit all this nonsense of talking issues and campaigning and voting. right? The guy with the biggest super-pac pot, the one who reaps the most 'REAL" billions, wins. "...pouring TONS of money into every state" will save every American from having to vote. Do we need an amendment for that?
This column is meaningless. The voters don’t vote for the President. The Electors do, per the Constitution. The voters don’t even vote for the electors. During the Bush-Gore thing in 2000 someone in the Florida legislature suggested that they just elect the Electors and be done with it. The founders didn’t trust us.
1
Trump has no defense except the corruptness of the Senate and Mitch McConnell.
18
Frank Bruni is correct: the Republican premise here is absurd and an insult to a person of average intelligence, like me. To argue that a person - in this case, a person of less than average intelligence, not to mention non-existent moral standing - once elected, is immune to removal defies common sense and simply can't be what the revered "framers" (with all of their faults) had in mind. Mitch McConnell and his stooges are using the Merrick Garland ruse, and equally perverse inversions and variations thereof, to snooker the gullible and complacent and just plain stupid amongst us. I wish I had confidence that what they are claiming - that the voters will (and have) work their will - but the process has become so distorted that I have my doubts. After all, who in their right mind could have imagined four years ago that we'd be where we now are, in a supreme, democracy-threatening pickle?
8
An excellent point was made in the article. This impeachment is happening precisely because the people voted in 2018. Apparently they weren't the "right" people, according to the president's defenders.
18
@Aaron Bertram He LOST the popular vote. The right people voted. We got cheated, again. The tyranny of the minority continues.
1
"When senators say they should kick an issue back to the people, they’re arguably violating the spirit of the chamber."
Senators are beholden to their voters because of a series of deliberate reforms designed to make them that way. If we want the Senate to be more independent, we need to go back to letting party leaders pick the candidates, rather than subjecting them to primaries. Or perhaps repeal the 17th Amendment and let state legislatures appoint them. We wanted the Senate to be more democratic; we got it.
2
If it were intended to be a bad joke it would be the worst of bad jokes, but it is merely a grasping at straws of illusion and make-believe lawyering. Lying for a lying president is easier than telling the truth about him, of one wants to be paid for services, no matter how terribly rendered. The truth is still the truth and a lie is still a lie, no matter how one wants to twist it and argue the reverse of the truth is the real truth. Are a check to be cashed from a notorious bankruptcy artist and the undermining of all American values so cheap as to be purchased at the price of short term power and eternal shame in the annals of American history?
The United States may have a problem with health care, but it will not be a case of collective amnesia in November.
7
Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial started in March 1868 and lasted three months. That was during an election year. Republicans led the charge for removal. Let the spirit of the Party of Lincoln return to the latter-day Republicans.
6
Mr. Bruni, the only power We The people have is the vote we cast. Headings such as this "Only the voters can send the president packing? That's a joke." are a danger, sir.
What I hear is, 'why bother'? WE the People have already been defeated and will remain subjects to djt and the posse of GOP members that own him.
You know what I know Mr. Bruni? The singular fact that for the fourth time in the history of our Democratic Republic, the actions of these subpar humans have resulted in a public trial of Impeachment is no small matter, sir.
No, this will not result in his removal from office; however, this has conjured up the attention of We the Majority who most likely had grown too complacent, and We are not easily fooled.
Our charge, Mr. Bruni is marking our history books citing 11-3-2020 as the highest voter turnout, surpassing all numbers in recorded history,and send these subpar humans packing.
Remember these words spoken by Nelson Mandela;
"It always seems impossible unit it is done."
VOTE
16
"The assertion that an election next November forbids honor this January is a joke, and the framers would have laughed at it." "Honor" has become an archaic concept in the Republican party. There is only short-term winning.
14
Sure. But look at those engaged in the “argument,” if you want to call it that in a way to demean the term. How can be a rational exchange take place to reveal the truth of any matter when one side ... or both ... are locked in place that refuses the possibility of finding truth or reasonable compromise? We’re fighting with self-invested lies these days ... here about what the Constitution provides on impeachment and congressional dismissal of a president from office. Republicans, who happen to be a majority of those comprising the jury, soft pedal this, at least through their spokespeople, “patriotically” to grandstand the voting right of the people while ignoring the context that the president in question conducts the office in violation of the Constitution. With the rigid political division we have these days, the playing field is not even and the voice of the minority ... maybe both sides ... is denied. If this exemplifies representative democracy, then representative democracy is merely a zero-sum game denying “... liberty and justice for all.” Trump didn’t get us here; but he has been successful in making the “here” of division our daily reality. And with this for strategy, lies displace truth and morality is ridiculed as weakness.
2
@wak Actually, we are suffering the tyranny of the minority. Two elections stolen by that minority. Time for a big change.
@wak , well said.
What is continually being missed or rather ignored is the founding fathers fear of concentrated power--so they authored a balanced of powers governmental structure with three branches of government, whose, charge, was to CHECK the power of their fellow branches. That governmental concept has been gradually eroded over the years, and now with Trump, buried in our forefathers graveyard.
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@Amanda Jones truth. Mitch McConnell is part of the legislative branch; working directly in conjunction with the executive branch. That is a direct violation of the separation powers.
6
@Amanda Jones Perhaps, because of this, we can correct things. First we need to vote out the current president; along with Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Devin Nunes, Lindsey Graham and any other Republican who blindly and knowingly backs this feeble assertion that "he did it, but it doesn't rise to the level of an impeachable offense." (In my opinion if it smells as bad as it does, flush the culprits down the drain.) Then look at what happened, pass laws to correct these errors, make them so they will pass the SCOTUS sniff test; Institute term limits. Ban "dark money" and PAC money. Yeah, and ban Lobbyists while you're at it. When it comes to science, trust the scientists, but be prepared to verify, and change course from time to time because Yes, they too will make mistakes. Undo the laws that tie congresses hands to Big Pharma, tobacco, Oil/Gas, Religion, gerrymandering congressional districts, and frankly anything else that smacks of a "its my way or the high way" approach to governing.
3
No mention of the fact that since 2011 corporations are considered people and money is considered speech? How can a true representative democracy allow that to happen without then being considered a representative oligarchy similar to Russia.
37
Since every day Congress is in session Republicans routinely violate their oaths of office and therefore cannot legitimately retain their seats, I don't understand how a quorum can ever be achieved to conduct business.
11
@Michael Romanello
I don't understand why Justice Roberts doesn't open his mouth and say something or the sergeant at arms goes over and eject them.
Enough with the GOP ignorance and rudeness. Next time they have a press conference a flash mob should show up behind them
Yes, we’d be better off if the senate dissolved.
Remember, it 2 republican senators withstood overturning the ACA and replacing it with NOTHING after the republican controlled house gleefully voted to do so.
21
All the chatter about “overturning an election” it isn’t a defense, it’s is just to fire up Trump’s supporters and annoy the Democrats. Everybody knows Trump isn’t getting removed from office. Whether Trump’s “It was a perfect phone call!” or Mulvaney’s “We do it all the time” was a lame defense, or a brilliant defense, will be decided in November. Perhaps the refusal to supply documents or allow testimony will prove to have been the most strategically smart thing Trump has ever done. Call it lame if you want, but the best defense is the one that works. If he gets re-elected, I think the lameness problem lies elsewhere.
14
@Peter like in the republican party?
1
Pundits are predicting that Trump will once again lose the popular vote, possibly by an even larger amount than 3 million as in 2016, and still win the Electoral College and hence the Presidency. I think blue states should start making contingency plans like withdrawing from the Union. There will never be fair and free elections in the US again as long as Republicans and Russia are in power.
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It was clearly Trump who attempted to undermine Americans's "right to vote." This is precisely why an intervention was needed. As Congressman Peter Welch (D, Vt.) expressed it on Dec. 18, 2019:
"When President Trump abused the power of his office by soliciting foreign interference in the upcoming election for his personal benefit, he willfully infringed upon the right of
citizens to decide who will lead our nation. In doing so, he placed himself above the law and in violation of his oath of office to 'faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States.' "
45
A large portion of our population doesn’t much care if Trump is corrupt or corruptible. They might get annoyed by his attitude or language, but as long as he supports their particular “one issue,” whether it relates to guns, abortion, judges or whatever, they’ll support him. And in the post Citizens United era, they get plenty of advertising to remind them that the president is true to their issue even if he regularly lies about everything else.
The Mueller report showed that Trump sought and received help from Russia in order to beat Clinton. Now he’s been shown asking Ukraine to help beat Biden. But Trump is still claiming to be pro gun, anti-abortion etcetera. And he will not get impeached and this remarkably dishonest, disrespectful and disastrous man is a real threat to be re-elected.
That is the definition of political despair.
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You must have read a very different Mueller report. It concluded the exact opposite.
@ChiGuy -- Amen.
1
The lawyers of the president do have lame arguments. Those arguments are no directed to the senators since they already signed on the outcome of the trial.
The lawyers are not defense lawyers since they not have to defend somebody already acquited. They do not have to prevent calling witnesses since that decision is also already made. The lawyers' job is a very important part of the re-election campaign.
They are talking to voters on national TV. They are providing the president's supporters with sentences and chants for Trump's rallies. Their job is closer to propaganda than to practicing law.
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The people's will? What's a laugh. If Republicans had their way at this.time free and fair elections would be a thing of the past, he'll they are close to having this now.
30
Absolutely. I might add that the will of the people was expressed in their 2016 choice of VP Pence to become president should Trump be removed from office by any circumstance, death, incapacity, impeachment.
So let the Congress do its constitutionslly mandated job and weigh all the available evidence, and let the people's will be served.
15
Over the past several years, when I have tried to point out to Trump supporters that Republican policies are often not supported by a majority of the people, their go to response is that America is a republic, not a democracy. Now that Trump is on trial, it is all about the democratic will of the people. But then we have known for some time that consistency was not important on the right, only winning counts.
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Frank Bruni tells it like it is. How sophmoric is it for the GOP senators to argue that convicting a defendent has negative consequences (for them).
Why not argue that conviction of an impeached president will not only hurt his chances for re-relection, but also
Harm his legacy
Harm his busines holdings
Harm his credit rating
Harm his speaker's fees
Harm his popularity
Hurt his feelings
Can the bank robber use the same defense; if not, why not?
What if the president loots the treasury. Since he can't be charged with a crime while in office, he can send his stolen money to the Cayman Island's, say, and get off scott free.
P.S: Questioning the validity of the Electoral College is the most important issue in the big scheme of things. Should a relatively tiny state like Mitch McConnell's Kentucky have two senators, while a huge state like California also has only two senators. Who drew the lines for the state borders.
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@Samm
The most important issue to most of the rest of the country is keeping New Yorkas in New Yawk. If you want to end the Electoral College you probably are not part of a minority group and clearly do not care to hear their voices.
@Samm
I wonder if it would be possible for California -- along with, say, New York, New Jersey and a couple of other population rich states -- to rearrange our pieces of real estate. We could have California A, and California B, and C and so on. Like classrooms in huge schools; or small businesses inside big office buildings. Let's think it over.
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@Sam
Maybe we should get rid of the senators and electora from tiny Vermont as well? It cuts both ways.
I think you miss a subtle predicate of the argument. Many people are not sufficiently outraged by the alleged conduct. Even though you may be, the argument is that you should recognize that you are not in a clear majority on the issue and thus defer to the upcoming election. If, in contrast, there were overwhelming support for impeachment, removal prior to the election would be appropriate.
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@Citizen I'm sorry, but you have apparently discovered a hidden clause in the constitution about the impeachment process. Apparently according to your logic, there needs to be a national referendum on whether to impeach a president. What sort of vote would then qualify for impeachment. What constitutes overwhelming support? If you would stop and think that is already embedded in the trial process since it requires 2/3 of the senate to convict and remove. House impeachment is only an indictment, a finding that there is enough evidence to charge a president, not that he is guilty of the charges. Those supporting Trump don't really seem to care what arguments they put forth. Apparently they have discovered alternative forms of reason that depend on alternative facts.
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@Citizen
If I get caught driving 60 in a 30mph zone, but nobody gets hurt, most people aren’t going to care. But it is against the law, and I will be penalized. It isn’t a popularity contest. The judge may decide to “overturn” my drivers license, even though my base (my boss, my family, and my friends,) will lobby on my behalf. The party that’s in the wrong has a lot to lose, and most other people don’t care (until they get run over.)
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@Citizen
We don’t convict people for their “conduct”. We convict them for committing crimes. Show us ACTUAL crimes committed not just cloudy, focus group tested terms that are not real crimes.
Great Opinion piece. The time of DJT will pass, even if we are left off worse than we were before. But two correctives would be a tremendous help for all of us going forward: a) term limits for Representatives and Senators - say 7 terms and 4 terms respectively, and b) electoral college elimination of, at least reformation so that electoral college votes are proportional, not all-for-one.
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This is just what McConnell does - sits on everything so nothing can get done. The Republican senate doesn't do anything - just makes it impossible for anyone else to get something done. (They haven't proposed or passed a new health care plan as promised, nor did they allow a vote on Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court, etc. and etc. and etc.) Now, McConnell et al. won't allow anything that would stop Trump from ruining the country.
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The argument of "let the voters decide" could hold some water if we actually had a popular vote instead of an Electoral College. But we have minority rule in this country, where one vote in Iowa cancels out 50 in California.
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Ditto my thoughts since I moved her from Europe ! Thanks
6
This is exactly the point. Simple Cippollone’s arguments to the contrary are nonsense to anyone who has actually read the Constitution. Perhaps it should be added to the required reading list in our schools. Perhaps we should see if our citizens (and yes that includes our Senators) understand it as well as those seeking citizenship.
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I don't think the Framers would be laughing at anything the Republicans are doing. Crying certainly, while turning in their graves. Or maybe casting eyes eastward, since Scandinavian democracies may be more attuned to their sentiments.
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"And Election Day is essentially the biggest poll of all" -- if the vote counting is fair, if we have HAND-MARKED BALLOTS.
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Congress itself is part of the reason we have an increasingly unconstrained presidency for the past five decades: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2018-08-13/unconstrained-presidency?utm_medium=newsletters&utm_source=fabackstory&utm_content=20200126&utm_campaign=FA%20Backstory%20012620%20The%20Backstory:%20Impeachment%2C%20Foreign%20Policy%2C%20and%20Presidential%20Power&utm_term=fa-backstory-2019 .
Trump has markedly facilitated the loss of expertise and international allies.
Trump was handed these powers and used them in ways no one has seen before. Our social media give him some new tools to do so, but our own representatives have been unable to maintain the balance of power. The only exception to this has perhaps been the Pentagon.
We do have to send the president packing in Nov.--but what do we do with an entrenched Congress that has enabled so much of what we see? As much as I dislike Trump and McConnell, and as much as the Republicans have been the most recent enablers, both parties have been involved.
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@JSK
The democrats have been working for decades, because we have been a the receiving end of the dysfunctional policies of the GOP. President Obama was stopped by Moscow Mitch and the birther ignorant mover, CEO Trump draft dodger and the racism of this country
The GOP should call themselves the party of hate for America.
Yes, McConnell prevented a vote on Merrick Garland, wanting to wait until after the election. But at that point no one, probably including McConnell, seriously thought Trump had a chance of winning, so it was really just a gamble that he happened to win.
6
What the republicans don't realize is that by letting Trump stump over the constitution is that it will set a precedent for presidents to come (there remains the danger) let's see what they will say when it's not a Republican.
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@Allen Ladd That's way too predictable! Just watch the "then and now" clips of so many Republicans.
1
@Allen Ladd
Republican party wont be around after November , The members are old, white. They reflect backward thinking and rich people who think that squeezing the poor will make them richer . Spoiler Alert, new president the old laws will disappear and people like Pompeo need to find those islands where white Americans who lie, curse can live without being signaled out but others for scorn.
Spoiler Alert, these men in charge have serious mental issues and need to be removed from office and we will
.overcome this nightmare.
2
Congressional Republicans, and especially Trump's lawyers, are interested in exactly one thing: creating a smoke screen big enough and opaque enough to give them cover to subvert justice and the will of the voters in order to win the next election. Once they accomplish that, they will have 2 - 6 years before the election after that to do more of the same, and/or create further avenues to maintain power.
We're wasting our time trying to find a logical, ethical reason for all of their obfuscations and rationalizations. Their goal is more power, period. How they get it is immaterial. Best thing to do is accept what is happening here in America: a hostile takeover of the levers of power by any means necessary. The "will of the voters" is only a concern to the extent it can be leveraged to obtain their goal. Once we accept that, we can act accordingly - beginning with a clear statement that this is what is happening.
In other words, it's time to end the attempts at "balancing" the narrative and simply stating the simple facts. The narrative is most certainly not balanced. Republicans are cheating, period. And we need to call them out on it at every possible juncture.
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Senate managers argument of overturning an election of the people through the impeachment process is specious in the extreme, in light of ample evidence warranting such. Surely, these managers and the Republican "jurors" have the intelligence to know better! Or do they?
10
@kozarrj As Upton Sinclair wrote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary [or job, power and/or ego] depends on his not understanding it.” Truth incurs risk.
2
"Senator Lindsey Graham chimed in: “I really do believe that the best person — group of people — to pick a president are the voters, not a bunch of partisan politicians.”
Well, voters did NOT pick Trump - the Electoral college overruled the will of the people. We need to remove the EC once and for all and rebuild our crumbling democracy with one person, one vote.
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@Tani Or change the winner-take-all system to proportional electors, for which there is no mandate in the U.S. Constitution. Nebraska, with all of five votes, is the only state that does.
10
Yes!! The Electoral College should award its votes in proportion to the popular vote. The current winner take all system is a farce.
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@Chris Bowling Maine can split its electoral votes- but it only has 3 votes in the Electoral College.Last election: 2 for HC 1 for DT.
5
The perennial ruse of Republican politicians -- only doing what the people are asking them to. I suppose this is why they stand by Trump, who held up Putin, vs. Obama, as his model for strong and effective leadership.
23
Republicans constant response is let the voters decide. Well they have decided. 70% want Bolton, Mulvaney, Pompeo, Duffy among others to testify along with all documents Trump administration is hiding released.
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Impeachment proceedings against DJT are a meaningless political, partisan farce. In any event, the bottom line is that no president has ever been removed following an impeachment trial.
As a practical matter, the only way to get rid of DJT is to vote him out of office, i.e., prevent his re-election and object to and/or delay passing any legislation he supports. Ignore him more in the press by publishing fewer pictures of him; disparage him by such tactics as publish accurate statistics about the number of participants in his rallies, which he repeatedly contends are successful beyond belief.
15
@BJM : I watch too much cable TV (mostly MSNBC but also CNN) and I wish they would stop showing photos and video of the president when they converse with each other. One of the perks of being president, I guess, the TV stations showing him behind the Resolute, in front of Marine One, getting on and off Air Force One. It gives a constant measure of 'gravitas'. It sinks in through osmosis, "strong leader" when the opposite is true. He's a big lump of baby but they do everything they can to make him look strong.
22
The fact remains that Senators representing, at best, a plurality of the population will pass this decision to their constituents. It is up to the Democratic (majority) Party to leave its convention united behind a candidate who will represent it, and the nation, with the dignity due the office, and the rest of the world. Okay, folks...
16
Republicans claim to want voters to decide Trumps fate, but they don’t want voters to see all of the evidence or hear from the key witnesses in Trumps impeachment. Go figure.
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A couple of points, one on editing, the other on content:
First, do fragmentary sentences really help in making a point? If traditional rules of language allow for effective communication, what is the purpose of abandoning the subject/verb rule other than a somewhat predictable attempt at head spinning? In the opening sentences of this piece, the fragmentary bits are meant for emphasis. However, periods interrupting what normally would be a complete sentence simply jar things up. Writing the same sentence this way would be just as effective:
"Once the Senate concludes its trial of President Trump, it should go into recess until next January; the House, too."
If emphasis is important, try a dash:
"Once the Senate concludes its trial of President Trump, it should go into recess—until next January; the House, too."
That said, the essence of this piece is to examine the conflict between 'might making right' and 'doing the right thing'. Has there ever been, or would there ever be or a situation where 'doing the right thing' and 'might making right' go hand in hand? In the 21st century, do the People still need the framers' 18th century conception of intermediaries? What happens when the intermediaries are not representing the will of the People? Are the People themselves corruptible?
We don't actually know how many of the framers would have laughed at current Republican assertions. Most likely, some would have laughed. The others would have been on Fox News.
7
@Charles Kaufmann I'm intrigued by the disconnect in your comment, which combines stern disapproval of the effective use of colloquial modern English with blithe rejection of the framers' eighteenth-century principles in favor of, well, whatever the "People" (whatever that means) want.
I have copy- and line-edited more than 1,500 books, fiction and nonfiction, over my career, a good number of them appearing in New York Times Best Books of the Year lists; most recently, its Notable Books of 2019. So I feel qualified to say that there is absolutely nothing wrong, from an editorial standpoint, with the writing of this piece. It's effective; it's rational; it's clear. Unless, of course, you insist on eighteenth-century principles for writing, while rejecting the eighteenth-century framework the nation's balance of powers is still hypothetically structured on.
1
@Miranda Ottewell It's tempting to use fragmentary sentences out of habit. Very tempting. I'd suggest, though, that they're best used in dialogue. In other contexts, first consider the alternatives. They are like parentheses and explanation points. Give yourself a small yearly quota and try to keep to it.
It goes hand in glove with the argument that impeachment "tears up the ballots" of the previous election. By that logic, no one should ever be removed from a post - no CEO should ever be asked to step down (he was already approved right?), no police officer who pulls his gun too fast should be put off the force (he was already approved right?)... This isn't cancel culture but appropriate redress for someone who violates the position they were asked to serve honorably.
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The impeachment trial defense is merely a repackaging and polishing of bombastic talking points made on Sinclair radio for the past many weeks. All of this nonsense has been market-tested and proven with Trump's base. I heard nothing new. The target voting block was convinced before the articles were filed.
38
@Chef The Democrats are not playing to that audience (Fox, Sinclair.) They are not even playing to the Democratic base. They are playing to 5 Senators at best; and, the 33% in the middle as well as the vast audience who didn't even vote in 2016.
1
It's not just the Electoral College that is disproportionate in representing the majority voice in America, but the 2 Senators/state also established in the Constitution. I read recently that 15 states have 70% of the population of the US and only 30 Senators; the balance of states have 30% of the population and 70 Senators! And this only gets worse ahead as more and more folks move to big cities for work. This is a real imbalance that needs to be remedied. (The easiest being doing away with the EC.) Otherwise a large minority will always rule the majority. And that won't stand, will it?
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@M Harvey
We could all buy tiny cabins in Republican-heavy states and register to vote there. After a very short search just now, I found no laws specifically disallowing this. Might be a hoot.
7
@M Harvey One can win the Presidency with as little as 12 states, as long as they are the right states with the right numbers in the Electoral College. Hillary should have won by virtue of her winning the three big kahunas: California, New York and Illinois, which represent between 1/3 and 1/2 of the EVs needed.
2
@M Harvey As lonbg as Republicans are the ones with the power it will stand. They have the power now with minority wins. Trump and the GOP have shown again and again to be liars and cheaters. Except a lot of this in 2020.
3
It all fits into the GOP's fear: they want to remove Trump, but they are afraid of the blowback from the base. However, if they wait until Election Day, and Trump is defeated, they will be blameless. "The people have spoken". No blowback. Makes perfect sense.
17
@Mitch4949 The problem is the election "meddling" itself that is at stake. If Trump is acquitted he and GOP members will go full on to "meddle" in the elections in any way they have to to win.
22
@Mitch4949
Apparently the base despises Vice President Pence, who would be the main beneficiary of the removal of Trump.
1
@Charlesbalpha
really do you believe Pence even wants to be President ?
Mr. Bruni, many thanks for your effort, but I'm sure you'd agree that when we've been reduced to arguing about nonsense, and today's GOP is strictly about nonsense, we've lost the argument before we even begin. It's like arguing that, well, climate change is a Chinese hoax. We seem to fight all battles on the opponents' turf. It's time we change strategies. Mike Bloomberg is, through his simple-to-understand, direct television ads, taking the fight straight to the house of nonsense. I admire him for doing so, and I especially admire him for stating that he will continue to do so whether or not he is the Democrats' nominee. He, like millions of us, is extremely concerned about the future of his country, and he is using his money and his considerable intelligence to do something about it. This circus that the GOP has intended to create from the start of the proceedings will run its course with Trump still in office, but hopefully those undecided voters who have heard the facts presented clearly and precisely will now recognize this dire situation for what it is and join us in removing this plague come November. The alternative is too grim to consider.
64
@Michael. I like Bloomberg - strong, decisive, visionary. He is probably the only candidate equipped to take the fight to Trump and the Republicans.
He has a record of having served in elective office - NYC's mayor. Trump has zero experience on how govt runs; that's why he mucks up everything. And, his knowledge of history is almost nil. Trump's idea of stealing elections - will only be stopped by a stronger, more decisive leader like Bloomberg.
1
Something that is even a little hard to talk about these days is that the voters per se are not a sufficient safeguard against constitutional threats such as Trump. Too many voters don't pay attention, and yes, too many don't understand important issues. That's one reason why the framer's instituted the electoral college and didn't even want the senators to be directly elected. Foreign policy issues in particular are difficult for a lot of people to understand. The Republican members of congress are abdicating
their constitutional responsibilities with the argument that only the voters can pass judgment on Trump.
36
@EBinNM
"Too many voters don't pay attention, and yes, too many don't understand important issues. "
Reminds me of the scene in the movie "Remains of the Day", where an aristocrat questions his servant about "the issues", then concludes that "the common people" can't make good decisions and should defer to their betters. The aristocrat who was boasting of his superior knowledge turns out to be a dupe of the Nazis..
2
Same song, my dear man. I sit appalled, but always hopeful in the country in which George Washington refused to be king.
33
I take no comfort in being told "sort this all out with the next election".... especially when the party that is saying this has consistently refused to pass legislation to secure our elections against foreign interference (that we KNOW affected the 2016 election); the same party that continues to parrot Russian propaganda about who was behind that interference; the same party that has gerrymandered some states beyond recognition; and the same party that has done everything in their power to suppress voting in this country. "Trust me" they say. Nope.
171
The basis for this column is strong, but wrapped a bit delicately. Let’s call a spade a spade. The argument for waiting for an election in just another diversion ... another slight of hand from those who have become Trump’s acolytes in his cons. Shame on those who try to normalize it as a legal defense. And shame on every one of the Senators who treated the chamber like a study hall. They should have actually educated themselves during the impeachment hearings that were televised for two weeks. I did. And many other Americans did as well. These Senators are doing as much to diminish law and justice as Trump who has always thought he was above the law.
181
"Lawmakers are elected specifically to speak for voters on crucial issues. That’s the system. That’s their job. American government doesn’t operate by daily, hourly or issue-by-issue polls (at least not overtly)."
But let's face it: a lot of Americans are survivalists & anarchists who don't want anyone to speak FOR them. They don't really believe ANY elected representative is legitimate unless he/she tells them exactly what they want to hear, every day, and votes exactly the way they would vote on every issue.
So, the Republicans argument is perfect for them. It doesn't matter if it flies in the face of tradition, or the workings of the Constitution, b/c they'll just define both of them any way they want to.
We have one party interested in governing, & one interested in locking up the system so nothing can ever be changed.
Republican governance has become nothing more than a long delaying action until 5 ultra-rightwing Supreme Court justices (all picked by the Federalist Society) can be confirmed. When this happens, the Courts will be able to return to us to the 1920s. Indeed, all progress made since the Dred Scott decision may be up for reconsideration.
But none of that will matter to their supporters. Because they don't really want the government to do anything anyway, except build a wall and cut their taxes. In other words, what they would do if *they* were elected! What's "right", "wrong" or "lame" has nothing to do with any of this.
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@Bryan At that point, Congress will care less about the wall or tax reduction.
3
@Bryan Until it actually happens and then they will see their fantasy was just that. Reality will be very very uncomfortable.
10
Lawmakers are primarily elected to conduct legislation. In this regard, Congress has been criminally negligent, having been singularly obsessed for the past three years with undoing the 2016 election. Mr. Bruno is entitled to his wishful thinking which he amply and repeatedly demonstrates on these pages. For this he has plenty of company within the Time's echo chamber, in which it is easy to become delusional about what is really happening out there in the real world and in the minds of real voters.
1
@JJ Gross I don’t think he said Congress has been “criminally negligent” (they have passed quite a bit of legislation that is waiting for Senate review).
Bruno is just saying that in a representative democracy, those elected can decide things like impeachment or putting a stop light on a street. The do not have to wait every 4 years to let people decide if they want a stop light.
I think you have to read the whole article. You may not agree which is what generates a discussion and, sometimes, greater reflection.
Especially, if the logic holds then, as some
have already noted, 70+ percent of Americans want more witnesses, so, just do it!
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@JJ Gross Seems to me, more like the current administration is trying to undo all the previous administration did. I think Congress, and the President, is singularly obsessed with undoing all of Pres. Obama's initiatives. Just look at the record. And, still, Obamacare is active, not replaced with anything better, though Obamacare needs fixing. Trump is trying to do everything Putin seems to want, not what this country wants, or the EU or NATO , for that matter. Trump's foreign polilcy is a mess, but he's certainly fulfilling Putin's wishes for a putting Europe in disarray, at least, making inroads in that direction. No, no, no, JJ, it's the 2008 election the Repubs. are trying to annihilate.
77
@JJ Gross the ones who have neglected their duty to legislate are the republicans, namely Mitch McConnell, who have refused to take up legislation passed by the house since the GOP lost it.
3
OK SO THE GOP Is taking the doublethink line that the elected members of Congress, sent to DC to conduct the people's business, should NOT engage in those activities, because they do not wish to disenfranchise the voters in 11/2020? My jaw has dropped at reading this preposterous position. In the US, we have a representative democracy. 72% of voters polled want to hear witnesses and review documents as part of the trial. They want MORE information about the trial. Of all the lies concocted by the GOP members, this is the most dangerous. The GOP members are proposing to disenfranchise the power of the voters to make an informed decision about how to cast their votes, because they refuse to comply with the demands of their constituents to provide access to witness testimony and documents related to the articles of impeachment. The GOP wants to cheat the voters. They want to steal the votes by refusing to provide witnesses and evidence about what Trump did.
87
@John Jones
Indeed. They have always resorted to every rotten trick they can to win. Voter suppression by any tactic that works, whether it's robo-calling vulnerable people, to attempting to get a question on the census that would scare off a certain demographic, to tearing down any type of oversight of the southern states' ongoing Jim Crow tactics .. anything will do. There is no bottom.
I am hoping for a natural bottom, of sorts, in the near future, since it's clear that the GOP is destroying itself. There will be little left of it after Trump is done.
40
In addition to the Constitutional defects, one irony of the "let the people decide" posture is that many Republican voters wouldn't mind, and in fact would welcome, the opportunity to vote for a different nominee than Trump this November. And a lot of Senators you can be sure would rather have someone who wouldn't get impeached, or at least who wouldn't behave half as insanely, in charge. It's just too late for that now (sorry Mike Pence).
Yes, Senators, the election is supposed to be about the NEXT four years, not the previous. Although I suppose that making the November election into a replacement for the impeachment trial has a certain consistency to it -- after all it's Trump's leadership style to keep the focus on winning the past.
21
@Sachi G An upcoming election is not a license for Congress to shirk its constitutional duties.
That said, wouldn't it make for rich irony should Trump, a classic narcissist craving adulation and adoration, be sent to a massive defeat, maybe as high as 60-40. It won't stop him from tweeting bombast and victimization melodrama -- after all, he'll always have an audience/base for his melodramata -- but by then it and he will no longer matter. Trump would forevermore be a footnote in history, relegated to the asterisk.
It would be even sweeter should McConnell and the Senate majority sent packing as punishment for the craven cynicism and failure to put country over party.
3
@Chris Bowling Yes to both scenarios!
1
Even if Congress can’t be forced to go into recess until next January — remember Judge Tucker’s famous maxim — I like Andy Borowitz’s suggestion that they should all make $15 an hour, and that only when actually sitting in session. Even that would be overpayment for many of them, but more reflective of their true value.
44
When elections are, should play no role in actions by the House and Senate. However, whatever the House and Senate do or don't do is fine, as well. Our government structure isn't even remotely democratic; the existence of the Senate proves that alone. Rather, impeachment is a purely political decision, as are the verdicts by the Senate in a trial. Therefore, without bipartisan support, impeachment should never be pursued. Moreover, lack of bipartisan support in Congress tracks closely with a dearth of popular will to remove the President. This is born out by the empty spectator gallery and poor ratings for the trial on TV. The bottom line is that the election is less than 10 months away. The articles were held back by the Speaker for a month. Waiting until the voters have their say would've made good political sense. Of course, that's predicated by the belief that the Dems have faith in their presidential candidates. Obviously, they do not.
2
@MJG sounds great to an uncritical thinker, until you realize that Congress was away on Holiday recess for 3 Weeks. Also, You seem to be OK with Mitch Delaying législation forever and nullifying 8 Months of President Obama’s term. I think Nancy Pelosi has handled this Matter brilliantly!
1
I kinda like the election nullification argument. In 2018 we voters installed a new House majority giving them all rights to pursue impeachment. By refusing to recognize this, the Republicans are trying to undo the results. How dare they!
76
Great column. I find it puzzling that the Republicans, who have systematically gerrymandered districts throughout the country (Wisconsin is a case in point) to unfairly maintain power--see Ezra Klein's article in this same edition--are suddenly concerned about preserving the will of the people.
As expected, the defense in the impeachment fails to directly deal with the Democratic manager's well-articulated case, but must resort to evasions and character attacks, as well as factual inaccuracies.
The Republican claim that calling for witnesses proves the Democrats failed to make their case is nonsense. Since the impeachment hearing, more information has surfaced (e.g. the tape of Trump saying "take her out"), making it imperative to get documents and witnesses. Bottom line: if there is no "case," prove it by calling for witnesses and documents--the very things Trump has withheld in obstruction of congress.
The Republicans know their "base" does not reflect the increasingly diverse population of this country so they resort to obstruction and manipulation to preserve their power.
45
We are a representative democracy and we have a Constitution which is clear regarding the option of an impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors. Neither of these facts are in line with the current thought processes of the Republican Congressional members. We can conjecture all we want to regarding their rationale for these beliefs; the bottom line is that they believe it's not in their best interests to be reality based.
23
Bruni's inference that the electoral college is the reason we have Trump and that is somehow wrong because Clinton got 3 million more votes than him is absurd. The reason we have Trump is because Clinton ignored Wisconsin, didn't pay attention to Michigan and didn't have the right message for Pennsylvania. With a little more effort, she might have won 2 of the 3 states and the outcome would have been different. No, the reason we have Trump is because of Clinton's "It's my turn now" approach along with her lack of a unifying message. And no, it was not the Russians nor the emails that led to her defeat, but simply her west and east coast focus along with a very poorly run campaign.
9
@Steve B Regardless of how often this argument is put forward, I and many others find it unconvincing. When nearly 3 million more people vote against the "winner," it makes no sense in a democracy where there's supposed to be a "one person, one vote" rule. The "loser takes it all" Electoral College strategy has to go.
49
@Steve B
As soon as both chambers and the presidency is blue - and that will eventually happen - it's only a matter of time, and besides, the pendulum has swung so far now that it will come hurling back -- when it does, every possible method must be used to abolish the electoral college, since it very clearly ensures that a minority can successfully rule. This is not how democracy actually works, so it needs to go. And it will. Only a matter of time.
30
Not only must the Electoral College go but also the Senate must be reformed. It is a ludicrous abomination that the Dakotas return 4 Senators and California 2. This is institutional gerrymandering of the highest order.
1
I've been waiting for someone to mention the obligation of political "leadership", and now Mr. Bruni has. An excellent column. I would disagree only with his concluding words: "the framers would have laughed at it". I think it's far more likely they would have been either grieving or enraged over the current state of the country they envisaged and designed.
The framers were fallible human beings in many respects, and were (naturally) confined by the social and cultural codes of their own time, with regard to race, class and other social parameters. By and large, they were nevertheless men of some honor. I only wish the same could be said of their descendants in the Republican Party today.
44
Quite honestly, I don't think it's the fear of trump or fear of his base. After all, he won't be a president once removed and not all Republicans in the Senate need to please his base. I believe that the whole Republican party is in the pockets of Putin. So, they cannot go against anyone or they want a Republican dictator.
25
@Ganyavya I think the more parsimonious explanation is that the Republican establishment actually likes Trump’s policies. The Republican establishment and base doesn’t need Putin to convince them to support policies that benefit the rich/visit terror upon immigrants/etc. Bretbug Stephens’ column today is a prime example of ostensibly principled “never trump” conservatives infatuation with Trump’s policies. Don’t give these people any credit, they are perfectly happy to terrorize immigrants and lick the boots of the oligarchy without inducements from Russia
2
Everyone is simply going through the motions here. Both Congress and the Press. As well as the usual cadre of academics who like chatting with reporters and seeing their bon mots in print. Each pretending that appeals to reason, decency, and the Constitution will somehow sway the predetermined outcome. But impeachment isn't about reason and argument but simply power and who has the votes. All of the actors know this yet they carry on with the artifice and wonder why the audience on whose behalf the production was mounted has already left the theater.
4
@Frunobulax
What this process is doing is shining a light on just how cynical and undeserving our electorate is of democracy, as evidenced by both your cynical point, and the sad truth that indeed most people have left the theater because they just don't really want to do the civic work it takes to live in a democracy anymore. They would must rather have a fascist dictatorship - because it's simply easier.
It's a generational thing - there is barely anyone left alive that actually remembers why we went to Europe in 1942, and what Germany represented at that time.
I'm afraid that it's possible we may soon be reminded firsthand.
1
You may have left the theater, but don’t have the arrogance to claim to speak for me and many others.
1
Yes, President Trump was elected by the people.
But one should be reminded that so were the members of Congress.
26
I’ve heard & read this type of comment several times. SOME of the people elected trump; roughly half of the people did not. As has been made clear, repeatedly since the 2016 election, the popular vote was won by Hillary Clinton.
39
@Lisa S I agree with you. The majority of voters did not want him.
My point, poorly expressed, is that the body that impeached him...the House...was selected by the people.
2
The Senate should go into recess if they aquit Trump because they will have voted that they are irrelevant - that Congress is not a coequal branch of government, that the President is not answerable to them, he does not have to inform them or consult with them or consider them in any way; that they exist only to rubber-stamp his decisions. I guess they will stay in power - but what will the point of it be, if they are afraid to do anything that might anger Trump? If they can only move in lockstep with McConnell, then all the rest of them might as well go home.
54
Trump has crossed the Rubicon. I think it only fitting that the Senate, under McConnell’s tutelage, should declare Trump “Dictator For Life.” Talk about condign punishment!
2
What if this were the president's second term? There would be no chance to "vote him out."
The Senate could not, then, use this as an excuse.
What an absolute subversion of law McConnell wrought, first with Merrick Garland, now worth impeachment.
125
Current polls have a majority of Americans stating that Trump should be removed. Why wait until November if the will of the people is to be respected?
If this is the best argument they have, and after listening it seems to be, the President's Managers should rest and let all motions and votes proceed on Monday.
25
The Democrats are trying to subvert the will of the people in the 2016 election.
Not so. It was the electoral college that made Trump the President. The majority of the people voted for Clinton.
I guess the Democrats are trying to reinstate the will of the people!
74
No matter how much Democrats want to take this defense away from the Republicans, I think that it is just a simple fact that the closer we get to the general election with no resolution of the Senate trial, the less the electorate will understand Congress choosing the President instead of themselves.
This is especially true when the articles of impeachment have been approved on a strictly partisan basis. See The Federalist No. 65 on Hamilton's fears that in such an impeachment
"there will always be the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt."
Republicans would feel very cheated at having the opposition party remove their sitting President a few months before his fate was placed in their hands and might rally against the Democrats.
Since I see little chance of Trump's re-election -- he won't be running against anyone name "Hillary," this may be a case of regret at receiving something you thought that you wanted.
1
"the system (Electoral College) and voter sentiment (popular vote) aren't perfectly aligned." It reminds me of Jon Stewart's observation that Progressives have won the Culture, but lost the Government. This Senate Impeachment Trial which appears now about to proceed with witnesses and documents exemplifies the unresolved conflict. 70% of polled Americans want witnesses and documents presented and Republican Senators do not.
18
@craig80st Correction: this Senate Trial appears now about to proceed without witnesses and documents exemplifies the unresolved conflict.
8
Inasmuch as the next election is only nine months away and it's pretty clear that there'll be no way of getting rid of Mr. Trump before then, why not just settle down and wait to hear what the voters have to say at that time? Interestingly, for all his faults, It's becoming clear that he's actually doing a pretty good job, Democrats might want to prepare themselves for the possibility that he could be reelected. Are they ready to keep up anti-Trump hysteria for four more years? I don't envy them.
3
@Ronald B. Duke : Why not? Because of the Constitution. djt took an oath to uphold it; by pressuring a foreign nation to interfere in a US election, by over-riding Congressional power of the purse (the aid to Ukraine), and by obstructing Congress's investigation into this matter, he has broken that oath.
His job performance to date has nothing to do with his having broken the law. People aren't allowed to commit crimes because they believe that they've done well at work.
And about that "pretty good job" you think he's doing: Unless you're a fabulously rich person who enjoys paying a disproportionately small sum in taxes while infrastructure crumbles, loves seeing more-polluted water and air, and can't wait for the climate crisis to burn some and submerge others, I can't imagine what you find "pretty good."
Here's a small portion of the destruction that most of us see -- 40 facts about djt's tenure:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/opinion/trump-ukraine-whistle-blower.html
1
@Ronald B. Duke
No person deserves impeachment more than Trump
...And no, he's not doing a good job. We've, for the moment, avoided a war with Iran but I doubt it's because he's done a good job or even knew what he "was" doing.
More likely, the leaders in Korea, Iran, etc. have probably concluded that Trump is crazier than they are and they might just get wiped out since, apparently, Trump is the "only" one calling the shots.
DJT is deranged. ...and, not to be unkind, but anyone who thinks otherwise suffers from the same malady.
1
@Ronald B. Duke : The reason is, clearly, that we cannot trust this president not to cheat again. He's already, publicly, asked for help from both Ukraine and China. He used tax dollars to extort Ukraine for an 'announcement' of an investigation and he stood on the White House lawn and asked China for help in 'investigating' the Bidens. And this was after asking for help and getting it from Russia in 2016. He'll find a way to cheat in 2020 - or if it looks unfixable he will find an excuse to call off the election.
People forget: Trump is Individual One in the SDNY and he will be prosecuted if he leaves office in defeat in 2020. He has got to get a second term to let the clock run out or he goes to prison.
1
More people voted for Hillary Clinton than Trump. Bu the logic at work here Trump was never voted into office.
He doesn't feel compelled to follow the wishes of the majority and resign?
25
Trump's performance in polls has been dismal all along, and the Democratic taking of the House in 2018 was further evidence that voters are less than enamored of the President. Yet Republicans insist that only at the ballot box can he be removed from office. Could it be that they're confident the November election is rigged?
P.S. Any lawyer who makes an argument that a high-school civics student would know is false -- ie., that impeachment is not a Constitutional process -- should be immediately disbarred. This might help to raise the public's respect for lawyers.
92
If the framers did not feel there were times when a "duly elected" president should be removed from office, thus nullifying the vote of the people, they would not have included impeachment in the constitution. And this is regardless of whether he is up for re-election or not.
107
We cannot keep saying no one is above the law and give the president powers that he shouldn't have. This notion that the president cannot be indicted is based on a policy by the Department of Justice, not based on the constitution or any law. If that policy wasn't in existence--and it shouldn't be--Trump would have been indicted when his attorney Michael Cohen was with the same result, a jail sentence.
Now the idea that people should have the say in voting out a president and impeachment should take a backseat is another harebrained idea by the Republicans to keep Trump in power. Unfortunately, they have the majority in the Senate and will probably acquit Trump.
Hopefully, the people will not only vote Trump out but also the Republican Senators who seem to put their party above their country.
183
@RK Especially the president shouldn't be above the law. Presidents can do more damage than an ordinary citizen when they can ignore the law with no real consequences, as we have seen recently. Another example of too much accruing of power to the president is war. Congress having to declare war before there is one has been a dead letter since at least the end of World War II, and that has not worked out very well either.
18
@Steve C.
"Congress having to declare war before there is one has been a dead letter since at least the end of World War II, and that has not worked out very well either."
Indeed. And it has cost thousands of American lives and many times that of non-American live, not to mention the trillions it cost--and continues to cost--the taxpayers.
The military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about is not only not alive but thriving. Sadly.
14
@RK
The GOP is the factory of "harebrained ideas" that seem to flummox the electorate into believing they have some kind of validity. ...like 60million of us.
Who knew so many would bigly love a man who is so cerebrally limited that he makes up his own adverbs as he goes along? Who knew so many would love a man who doesn't even know what that word means and could care less if he puts us, our soldiers and allies into harm's way?
Who knew? I hope Democrats can figure that out before it's too late.
5
Let’s face facts. We are two nations not one. So can we figure out a way to divide in peace or are we going to play out in real time the dystopian movies the masses have gorged on for the last 30 years? The Republicans have been playing hardball all this time while Democrats have been whistling past the graveyard. It’s time to get a grip on reality.
15
@John Marksbury The geography of it is probably the greatest challenge. Perhaps California forms its own nation and maybe some neighbors will be interested to join.
The Northeast is not so easily embracing themselves with liberal ideas as some may think. Much of the South will feel some degree of camaraderie, but how far? The mid-west, whatever that is - is Chicago cool and New Orleans weird?
I haven't even mentioned NYC!
6
@Glenn Thomas, every state is purple. I think it would be quite complicated to split.
3
@John Marksbury Even when I was a kid I thought that if America couldn't realize its simple agreement to learn to coexist, there was no hope for world peace or any sort of cooperation, including the expectation that marriages are forever.
1
Isn’t it about time we face what ails us and come to a consensus about how to regain our sense of balance and direction? Abortion, gun control, race relations, immigration etc. are issues that have plagued this country for far too long. When did we become so outrageously selfish, both Republican and Democrats, to think that only one way of thinking was the most righteous? Since the House impeached Trump, we should stand by it’s decision and let the Senate call the necessary witnesses and fairly weigh the facts. If it’s proven that he tried to influence a foreign nation into helping him in the 2020 election or obstructed Congress, then he should fairly pay the price for his behavior. I’m sick of the rhetoric, the partisanship and the blind chauvinism. Let the system do it’s job, see the truth for what it is, abide by it’s decision and get on with the governance of our nation.
39
@tgemign You sound like a fair-minded individual calling for cooperation between the political parties. I think you should understand that the Senate is constitutionally enjoined to provide a, "Fair Trial"; that is the constitution's mandate to them. But the Republican Senate and majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has asserted that he will abdicate this responsibility and not permit any testimony or evidence admitted in his trial. How can he hold a, "Fair Trial" without evidence and the testimony of participants and witnesses?
Please ask yourself, is this a person who wants a "Fair Trial?"
2
@tgemign
Read this article (from the NY Times, 1-23-20):
by Josh Blackman (Jan 23, 2020)
Trump Acts Like a Politician. That's Not an Impeachable Offense.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/opinion/trump-impeachment-defense.html
Even though this article elicited 2838 comments in a few hours, the Times took it down as soon as they realized it wasn't producing the response they desired. They didn't just remove it from the headline stories, you couldn't find it in any of the sections.
2
@tgemign ..... too logical.
1
For Republicans it's all about the spin, designed to appeal to Trump's base. Except for keeping the government funded, I agree with Frank the House should reject any new GOP initiatives until after the election. After all, it's the same rationale McConnell employed to keep Merrick Garland in limbo.
That most likely won't be an issue since Republicans are totally devoid of new ideas. They settled on trickle-down economics decades ago to hang their hats on, and haven't grown one scintilla since.
42
The argument that impeachment is invalid because we must wait for the decision of the voters at the ballot box is very much a kin to Mitch McConnell's claim that President Obama had no right to make to make and have a vote for a nomination to the Supreme Court in the last year of his presidency. Invalidating the Impeachment process which in the constitution has no time limits on its implementation invalidates the power of Congress much as Mitch McConnell invalidated President Obama and the will of the people for whom he spoke. These specious arguments by Trump's defense team as well as McConnell's invalidation of President Obama are a theft of power from those the GOP does not agree and the will of the people have elected.
The goal of republicans in these situations is not to serve the people but maintain its power at all costs including if it must the very constitution itself. Democrats must no longer stand for this power grab by the GOP, Trump and McConnell.
81
@just Robert : "Democrats must no longer stand for this power grab by the GOP, Trump and McConnell."
And how, exactly, is a group with no legal remedy supposed to do that? I'm so tired of people implying that somehow the Dems are at fault for not being strong enough when the fact is that laws constrain them!
In this instance, the legal procedure is for the Senate to serve as jury -- and the Senate, which gets to makes the rules for this part of the process, is GOP-controlled.
I suggest that you read the 1-24-20 NYT op-ed by Ezra Klein -- a grim look at the mathematical probability of the GOP continuing to hold disproportionate power -- and then start volunteering *immediately* with your local Dem organization. Work to make sure that people are registered; canvas for good Dem candidates in your area; and volunteer to drive those in need to the polls on 11-3-20. If you wants Dems to stand up to the GOP, then Dems have to hold the House, and gain the Senate and WH. So do your part!
12
Something to remember about members of Congress. While they are elected by district or state electorates and may be sensitive to their voters, when they vote their actions affect all Americans. So, even if they actually do "cater" to their constituents they should balance opinions of their voters with the needs of the country. Fair to say many more Republicans are acting very unbalanced these days.
21
The Founders wrote the best constitution they could at the time for their present, informed by their past, for on into the future of the nation.
The spirit of the thing was to be Liberty & Justice for All.
Governments are experiments and ours was and is the biggest of modernity so far. The US does not have a history of cyclical or politically engineered famine. Dictatorships of Russia & China have engineered famines.
The flaws of the Constitution have been exploited by GOP administrations.
We need to stop the injustices made possible by giving small population states 2 Senators. No more than 3 million & your state deserves only one.
We need more than one man certifying the Electoral College votes. Biden had to have or should have known of the penetrations into our system by Ru. I think he just rubber stamped the result when there was a good case for holding up on it. At any event more than one man ought be charged with certifying that vote.
We have to be careful with our own grand experiment. Yet we must see that the Executive both has and exercises power beyond their right.
3
I like Frank’s idea of recessing until early January 2021. The Senate could then render their verdicts with fresh insight into the popular will. At the same time, if CJ Roberts has one spoonful of jurist in him, and a pinch of respect for the framers’ intent regarding the impeachment of a president, he will become a ‘hot bench’ and take control of this trial in the interest of justice. He has every rational reason to believe a large portion of his ‘jurors’ are blinded by fear of threats by outside (political) influences. Those fears rise to such a level that many senators simply cannot adhere to their oath of impartiality. It is comparable to a trial judge with an armed mob at the courthouse door threatening a ‘tar-and-feather’ party if their will is not followed.
In such a setting the presiding officer (Roberts) would have every reason to insulate (protect) ‘his jurors’ by sequestration. While CJ Roberts cannot put the entire Senate under lock-and-key at the Watergate Hotel, he can insulate them by requiring that the final verdict (votes) on the two Articles be by secret-ballot only, known only to him and the Senate Clerk. We know such a ruling would be challenged, but >80% of Senators would sustain such a ruling.
Such a prophylactic measure would give senators some ‘plausible deniability’ from political blowback, and serve to lend enhanced credibility to verdicts based upon the evidence alone which they have seen. If he did so, Trump would be convicted easily.
43
Trump’s defense lawyers are defending the indefensible and treating the Constitution as if it were a book of religious laws that can be finessed to interpret absolutions or at least an out for the circumstances. Professor Lepore is on point when she outlines the various scenarios the founding fathers didn’t include in the Constitution. While the self-serving GOP Senate may acquit this corrupt traitor who’s destroyed our institutions , the lasting damage McConnell has hurled at the Constitution is yet another dangerous crime and contribution to the destruction of the nation as we know it. Since we have dirty money in politics at present , wouldn’t it be better if Steyer spent money on ads educating the public about Trump’s criminal corruption? Neither he nor Bloomberg (who bought a third illegal mayoral term ) will never get elected - ever!
11
@Ted
Steyer has spent money on trying to educate people.
Never say never. Bloomberg may be the 2020 surprise.
Trying to think of something to add, Mr. Bruni, but, you have covered the landscape on this quite thoroughly. Nevertheless, I know you do not expect any Republican Senators will abandon their see-no-evil, hear-no-evil cocoons.
18
There has been a sad irony hovering in the air since the Electoral College stole the voice, vote and will of, "We the people" by not placing Hillary in the presidency when she won the popular vote. But now, since the impeachment, that irony is fully evident and painfully understood in all of its sordid glory.
The Electoral College was created by the Founding Fathers to prevent a demagogue from gaining the reigns of the executive power and ruining our nation; however, by a truly ironic twist, the perfectly legal, yet anti-democratic intervention against the will of the people by the Electoral College in the last election accomplished precisely that!
A sad irony, indeed!
28
Partisan Impeachment by an autocratic, entrenched House leadership is at best a corrupt attempt to smear the reputation of the duly-elected President, and may inaugurate a most dangerous and pernicious threat to our the fabric of Constitutional Republic since the Civil War. Never before have we faced malevolent sophistry of the H'vard Doctrine of Eternal War with Russia (Soviet Union), subvert and sabotage the peaceful foreign policy initiatives of an elected President.
The House has no Constitutional role of oversight of foreign treaties or ambassadors and this transparent scheme of their self-aggrandizement and to disenfranchise half of the citizenry should be quickly squashed.
2
possibly, but impugning the reputation of DT is essentially impossible.
9
@Dennis J Solomon
" .. peaceful foreign policy initiatives of an elected President ..." ? Sorry, which president?
Oh, the one who who just ordered the assassination of a military leader of a country that we are not at war with?
If there is a pernicious threat to our Constitutional Republic, it's an executive branch who commits crimes and then refuses to cooperate with the co-equal branch that is designed to serve as a check to power. This level of obstruction is most certainly a "... never before ..." moment in our history.
And the level to which half of Congress has become complicit in such criminal behavior is yet another level to which we have fallen as a nation.
And it's not half the citizenry , by the way - - not even close, which is something we will see in November, when not even the dear Electoral College will be enough to perpetuate this deeply undemocratic period in our history.
10
@Dennis J Solomon, uh huh. The "peaceful foreign policy initiative" of cheating in the next election.
Trump has made it crystal clear that it is possible for a president to have corrupt intent that warrants removal from office.
"The assertion that an election next November forbids honor this January is a joke, and the framers would have laughed at it."
Lame or not, whether the framers would have laughed or not, his assertion as you put will come to pass. Who will be laughing at who then? And then what? He will be impervious to any call to account, sure he will be constrained a bit before the election but if he is re-elected then in the immortal words of Bette Davis, buckle up it's going to be a bumpy ride.
7
There has been a sad irony hovering in the air since the Electoral College stole the voice, vote and will of, "We the people." But now, since the impeachment, that irony is fully evident painfully understood in all of its sordid glory.
The Electoral College was created by the Founding Fathers to prevent a runaway, popular demagogue from gaining the reigns of the executive power and ruining our nation; however, by a truly ironic twist, the anti-democratic intervention by the Electoral College in the last election accomplished precisely that! A sad irony, indeed!
8
@Glenn Thomas, the electoral college was created before there were political parties or pledged electors. It stopped working as intended quite early in our history.
3
Refresh my memory: What was said just prior to Mr. Trump saying " I would like you to do us a favor though."
Was it something like "We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps. specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes."?
3
Javelins, I think.
Really, there is a simple rebuttal to the argument: 2018.
4
@Peter King
Or... That in 2016, 263,000,000 million voters conspired to deny the will of 266,000,000 voters.
Never forget that Trump lost the popular count!
Too bad we weren't made a direct democracy to begin with. I can think of two major reasons: distrust of the public citizenry and to protect slavery.
8
@J.Sutton, and because it's impossible to have millions of people vote on every stage of a piece of legislation.
Easy for someone from San Francisco to assert. Try explaining to the rancher in Nebraska how he would functionally have zero representation under a pure democracy.
tyranny of the majority is the reason
Please, somebody, remind the President and his Republican party that the voters DID speak in 2018, flipping the House to Democratic control with the expectation that the President would finally be called to account for his corruption.
48
Impeaching Trump doesn’t actually prevent voters from re-electing him. It does not determine the next election. He could still run for office.
@Edwin Meek He has been impeached by the House. If the Senate trial results in his being convicted, he cannot hold any office again. It is clearly stated in the Constitution.
15
@Edwin Meek - No, he couldn't. Article I, Section 3, Clause 7 says: “Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of Honor, Trust or Profit under the United States…”
Republicans, they loves them their made up rules as Frank illustrates.
For me, the idea that voting should require extensive identification while buying a gun should not is one of their best.
34
Gaslighting: It's What tRump and Republicans Do Best
They're making the argument that impeachment is subverting the will of the voters.
But that's exactly why he's is on trial. The whole purpose of the Ukraine scheme was to corruptly influence the 2020 election, thereby subverting the will of the voters.
97
@Chris Manjaro
Yes! When Trump is let off for trying to interfere in the next election, he will feel empowered to immediately get back to interfering in the election.
I never never thought I would think that Nixon could be looked at like a good guy.
17
@Citizen08758 Let's not exaggerate. Nixon was a really bad guy, but at least a few GOP senators were intelligent and patriotic enough to understand he could not continue as President, having covered up his own illegal acts while in office.
Our current situation - we have become a banana republic - is due to the utter degradation of the Republican party and a constitution that is showing its age.
1
Frank, the “ Rules “ are what the Republicans say they are. Nothing more, nothing less. And coincidentally, those “ rules “ change, drastically and instantly, dependent upon the political party in power, and the political persuasion of any Person under discussion, investigation or even Trial.
A perfect conundrum: do you want to be fair, or to Win ? Do you want Justice, or to Win ? Do you want a better Country, or to Win? Do you want to save our Planet, or to Win ?
Yes, a trick question. 100 percent, THEY must Win. Everything else is incidental and superfluous. The greatest hypocrites in History. Congratulations.
25
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Democrats used their rules in the House, Republicans will use their rules in the Senate.
Had the Democrats used fair rules in the House, they'd have waited until Scotus had agreed with them that their need to breach executive privilege was greater than the need for the executive to have sound counsel before assuming they were entitled to a fishing expedition and that they were entitled to breach executive privilege. But they didn't , so we have no way to determine the legitimacy of their allegations.
2
There was no fishing expedition. There was an investigation based on serious allegations by reputable witnesses.
“Executive privilege” was never intended to allow the president to break the law or subvert an investigation of same.
6
The impeachment of Trump in the House sets a precedent for future presidents and that matters regardless of what happens in the Senate. The Democrats did the right thing. But will the Republicans do the right thing and vote to allow witnesses to appear so all the evidence can be gathered or will they opt for a sham trial which would be a disgrace? Let's get all the evidence that is available and let the senators make a decision based on that evidence. That is really all we can ask for and then the voters can use that information when if the senators come up for reelection and when voting for president.
18
@Bob
Democrats made an accusation with insufficient evidence, which they are now claiming Trump has to give them via a fishing expedition.
They did so because they don't want to interfere with the process and timing of the Democrat primary and because they intend to damage Trump in the general election.
Democrats acted for purely partisan advantage and are going to be stunned when it backfires.
The hard leftists are willing to do anything to impede Trump. Fortunately for America, they are a small minority. The impeachment will harden them, but will alienate Republicans and Independents on the other size.
1
@Bob
Bob - the chances of the Republicans doing the right thing are about as likely as the Pope and Sinead O’Connor getting married next week.
1
I think the framers would be alarmed, not laughing, at what the Republicans in Congress are doing. I hope all of them get tossed out come November.
36
The Republicans are standing by President Trump because he did not do any wrong. He is innocent as charged. If there was an inkling of guilt, they would not stick by their president. They also know that the American people do not want him to be removed from office. He has been very successful and want him to continue making America great.
2
@KMW Then why not allow more evidence to support his total innocence?
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@KMW Trump claims he is innocent. He claims he wants witnesses ( he doesn't) to testify to prove his innocence. He will not be exonerated if witnesses are not called, documents sobpeonad and there is no cross e
xaminationof witnesses. Still looks like GOP still covering up truth.
6
@KMW
Innocent of obstruction? Blanket stonewalling? How is that not obstruction?
Innocent of using the office to pressure a foreign power to interfere in our elections? He admitted it on TV. Just because the president acts like what he does is not wrong doesn't mean it's not wrong.
More and more evidence comes out every day. How can you possibly believe he is innocent of the charges, when the evidence is so very clear.
The House played it very conservatively with two articles. He has also violated the emoluments clause, he fired an FBI director for investigating him and then admitted it on TV, and he obstructed justice in the Mueller investigation at least 8 times.
He is as guilty as a president could possibly be. To say that he "did nothing wrong" and to mean it requires a willing suspension of disbelief, which is find for watching movies and reading fiction, but this is no film - it's reality.
8
But Trump has the votes in the Senate to prevent his removal by the Senate, so the reality is only the voters can remove Trump at the polls in November. That is no joke, but the reality of the world in which we actually live. Democrats risk appearing to be wasting everybody's time and energy.
3
@David I think you are probably wrong on that. What's to prevent the Electoral College from usurping the will, voice and vote of, "We the people" again?
13
@David
The 'reality of the world we live in' includes having the truth about trump's dealings see the light of day, so that voters can make an informed choice in the election.
And voters can see that the 'votes in the Senate' consist of people who were in lockstep against having witnesses testify -- and can choose to remove these people .
the Democrats are not wasting everybody's time and energy. They are doing all they can to give the voters an informed choice.
The Republicans are doing everything they can to prevent that.
All of that is painfully obvious by now.
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@David
Not only are they wasting time and energy, instead of doing the work of the people, they are doing it for purely partisan advantage.
2
A successful removal vote almost always requires many cross-party votes from Senators of the President's party. In 230 years, that has never happened. And the founders had to know that removal by vote was far-fetched.
The impeachment mechanism was probably viewed as a theoretical fiction. The value of creating the procedure was to create a sense of continuity by means a peaceful overthrow of the government. But peaceful overthrows pretty much didn't happen before or during the colonial period. Monarchs weren't voted out of office, they were forcibly removed.
The founding fathers surely anticipated that forcible removal would be the rule and they probably provided for impeachment as an afterthought. And the fact that no President has ever been removed by impeachment would likely be no surprise to Madison, Hamilton or anyone else.
1
@michjas The Founders did not anticipate political parties. They certainly did not think that senators would march in lock step with a corrupt majority leader of the Senate and a corrupt and criminal President of the United States. The Republican Party has ended our representative democracy. They are bowing at the alter of autocratic government. Make no mistake, if they don’t cancel the 2024 election we will get another tRump who will “win” the electoral college. Time to leave. Or at least move to a state that will secede from this ridiculous joke of a country.
Checks and balances is what we called it in school. We have the three branches to share power.
But are we doing a good job?
NO, says this article "...... actions he took to corrupt the next presidential election by getting a foreign government to smear a potential rival ...... The election can’t be the remedy when the election is what’s at issue."
NO, many say.
When Congress wants to question the President, they may impeach. It's in the Constitution, and a way to share power.
Saying that is "not fair" makes no sense, if you love our history. I am very uncomfortable with Kings and one man rule.
Are you uncomfortable too?
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@Jim Dyer
My fear is that too many people are not. It seems to me that a sizable portion of our electorate appears to prefer dictatorship. Probably because it's easier. Less thinking required.
What I'm very uncomfortable about is that we seem to be very close to finding out what it's like to live in a country that is something other than a democracy.
9
@Jim Dyer
The facts smear the Bidens. There is no need to get the Ukrainians to confirm that Hunter exploited his father's official government position for personal gain.
The fabrication that Trump is guilty of anything is abuse of power by the House Democrats. That is exactly why they did not pursue Scotus confirmation of their ability to force Trump's advisors to pierce executive privilege and honor their unfounded subpoenas.
That's why they don't have conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, except to the minority of Americans who are motivated by hatred.
@Jim Dyer
@Jim Dyer
"Are you uncomfortable too?"
I am not even american and I am uncomfortable. Do you think he will be a good king or a bad king.
2
I think the point is, nothing has to make sense. Reason has exited the stage. We are seeing the results of a politics of faith - assertions unmoored from empirical evidence and critical analysis.
Serious political and religious thinkers have struggled with how to mitigate the suffering inherent to the human condition and curb the violence, cruelty, and inequities humans inflict on one another.
Good government, instituting justice as fairness and equitable rights and responsibilities calls for hard thought.
Belief, the leap of faith - the irrational acceptance of things beyond human verification - when taken seriously, is no easy thing.
The Founders knew to keep state and church separate to avoid muddling government with metaphysics. Today's crop of frivolous self serving demagogues and grifters are conning the credulous for the benefit of the corrupt. The Republican party and the Evangelical movement have debased both politics and religion.
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@pi
Yes, and the latter group you mention seems to believe in some kind of Zoroastrian myth of "end of days" and a scary nihilistic zealotry in their approach to everything important. Bizarre and scary.
2
@pi "Reason has exited the stage" - rather, isn't it morality, values and ethical standards that have been shoved aside by venal self-interest which has brought the United States to this impoverished dystopian reality?
2
@cass phoenix
Yes. I think, in the context of civic society and government, 'morality, values, and ethical standards' are based on reasoned consideration (which may take into account religious teachings but may not give them any preference based on belief or credo.)
1
I second the motion to everything you wrote, Mr. Bruni. In addition, there is another reason why impeachment is not a denial of the power of the voters: because even those who voted for Trump elected him to the office of President, not to the throne of a King (at least I hope that’s what they voted for). The power of the office of President is defined, by the Constitution, as being limited by the Congressional power of impeachment. Thus, if Congress were to remove a President by impeachment, it would be in no way a cancellation of the will of the voters.
BTW: Why do so many conservatives, who support limited government, continue to support a President who is acting more and more like a king?
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@Jonathan Joseph They support Trump because he is totally in accord with their desire to bring the US back to the state of laws in existence in the 1870s and certainly before the existence of the FDR era.
Their next step is going after Social Security and Medicare but they’ll hold off until after the next election when they’ll tell the public we don’t have the money for those things. Remember the tax gift to the super rich and corporations? It raised the deficit. They are keeping business going by keeping the Fed rate nice and low too.
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@Jonathan Joseph - Because there are actually a lot of people and not a few members of Congress people who WANT there to be a king.
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@Jonathan Joseph The "...cancellation of the will of the voters..." occurred when the Electoral College decided that the voice, vote and will of the voters did not matter in the face of their "enlightened" insight.
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To any and all who invoke the "will of the people," please note the anachronistic construct of the Electoral College. It needs to go. If we always cite the will of the people as the ultimate test, then why do we continue to give unequal weight to states with smaller populations? Why do their votes go entirely to the candidate preferred by their state's voters? Proportionality matters in legislating. Why not in voting? Of course, even with gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics, voters can, once in awhile, exert their will by overwhelming force. Just don't insult me by invoking the mantra of "one (wo)man, one vote." If I live in California, my vote carries much less weight than the vote of someone who lives in Wyoming. That isn't democratic. That's theft.
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@Stu
Yes we in California the most populated state in the Union get 2 votes in the Senate, just like Alaska. And its frustrating that in a national election for President because of the electoral college we have to hold our breath for those voters in the rural counties of Pensilvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. I’m tired of it.
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@Stu Watson This is why the Electoral College must go!
Period!
4
For about the first 100 years of our republic, the Senators were appointed, not elected. This was because the framers wanted the educated gentry (primarily the land owners) to hold sway over the great unwashed (as they called the uneducated masses), just in case they went populist crazy. The electoral college was established for the same reason. They wanted a check against the great unwashed if they selected an incompetent individual.
So you see from the very beginning, our republic was organized as a balance between the educated upper class and common folk.
Fast forward to today. We now have a populist in the White House who was put there by the common folk, at least that's what the polls indicate. The Senate has abdicated its originalist purpose to serve as a check against populism gone crazy by refusing to hold a real impeachment proceeding. Looks to me like the originalist conservatives should do what originalists are supposed to do and follow the Constitution.
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@Bruce Rozenblit Sorry! But Trump was put there by the elite in the far-removed, elite Electoral College.
7
@Bruce Rozenblit The Electoral College was the mechanism by which the Northern States were able to get the Southern, slave-holding, states to ratify the Constitution. The raison-d’être of the Electoral College was to counterbalance and give slave-dependent states a sure voice. Since a slave was not allowed to vote, and was counted as a fragment of a human being, the Southern States were worried that they would never hold a reasonable balance of power. The Electoral College came into existence only to count heads. Heads that were not allowed to vote. Since the abolition, there’s been no reason to retain the Electoral College. Except that it allows Republicans to claim victory in the face of actual loss. As we saw in the election of GWB and Mr. Trump.
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The Electoral College is anything but elite. It’s an antiquated mathematical process that addressed the fact that slave holding states had fewer citizens who were eligible to vote. Given that slaves had no vote, but made up a large percentage of the population, the Electoral College was the magic trick that gave Southern States an equal say in Congress. Time for it to go.
21
It only sounds like a joke because you misrepresent it. It is an absolute truth that only the voters can send a President packing for the sole reason of disagreeing with his policies. That is what the Democratic majority in Congress is trying to do. Trump has done nothing wrong or illegal. He's just done something they don't like and disagree with. That is not grounds for impeachment. That is up to the voters to judge a President on his policies and (legal) actions.
4
The GAO concluded that it was illegal to withhold funds and Trump broke the law by doing so.
Second, breaking a law is not a requirement for impeachment.
Trump attempted to receive foreign help in an election. Any president who commits this act should be impeached regardless of party.
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@David
He did nothing wrong? He only did the most egregious thing that the framers of the constitution warned about. Soliciting a foreign country to investigate an American citizen to benefit him in an election, thus interfering again in our elections. How did you miss that?
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@David
Nothing illegal or wrong? Soliciting the help of a foreign power to help in a domestic election is wrong, and it's a crime when you use the power of your office. Oh, and the GAO issued a report stating so. So yeah, a crime.
Wrong? Using the power of your office to stonewall a body that has the power to investigate you is wrong.
This is not about a disagreement. There have been plenty of disagreements , and they did not result in impeachment. This is about a president who has abused his power in ways that are not fit for the office. Just listen to Lindsay Graham back in the 90's - he said it very well then. It applies now as well.
Mr. Bruni is misstating the Defense argument. They are saying that by removing Trump from the ballot they are interfering in the election of November, 2020. And they are doing it on a scale than it far larger than Russian interference in the 2016 election. After all Hillary was on the ballot. She just lost 30 states and the electoral college which the Constitution specifies is how election of a President occurs. You might prefer the popular vote but the Constitution says otherwise.Facts are stubborn things.
2
Impeachment is not interfering in an election.
It is a constitutionally authorized power of Congress.
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@alan brown
"Facts are stubborn things." Well, for those who believe in them and for those who believe in truth they can be. But we have a president and half a congress which don't believe in facts or truth and therefore you maxim does not apply to them.
And the Electoral College? Gone like morning dew as soon as all three turn blue. It will happen - only a matter of time.
4
@O You omit the 63 million Americans who seem not to share your view and you ignore the WAPO poll from yesterday that shows greater than 50% of Americans do not think the President should be removed. You might also review the Constitutional requirement for an amendment to get the popular vote. It's not just "all three". The states have something to say, they only need one more than a quarter and no popular vote. Good luck with the Dakotas and Alaska and the South and Wyoming etc.
On a related subject what do Republicans think `Take her out...get rid of her...tomorrow' means? Subject her to a rigorous internal diplomatic audit? I think General Suleimani recently found out what it means. Those Republican senators still blessed with the gift of reason had better wake up, fast.
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@Purangiriver : Yes! I couldn't believe the press who considered those words to mean a 'firing'. That is mob talk. And consider to whom he was speaking - mobsters Lev and Igor. Were they supposed to 'fire' her? No! They were supposed to 'take her out'!
Trump surrounds himself with mobsters and criminals to do his bidding. The King demands! The King will not be questioned! Do as the King orders!
Dark times. Very dark times.
5
I wish it were a joke. Yes, it's laughable to claim that we should wait for an election to see if voters approve of a President who was caught trying to corrupt that very election. But when Trump is acquitted by the Senate, there will be nothing to stop him from ramping up his efforts to corrupt the election. The Senate will just have declared that a President who sets out to steal the election has done nothing wrong. At that point all the laughter dies, and God help the United States of America.
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@TMSquared & others, time to come to the realization that ALL Republicans care only about staying in power regardless of how that is. Democracy is an impediment to their manifest & God-given destiny, which is to be the permanent rulers of this country. THEY along know what's best! It is their modern day "white man's burden." That's what "make America great again" has always meant. Until we all recognize what we're dealing with, we'll continue to be namby pamby about them. They are the enemies of all who love Liberty!
18
Several comments have expressed the opinion that even after being removed from office after a Senate trial, the President could run for office again. Article 1, Section 3, last paragraph of the Constitution says: Judgement in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than removal from office and disqualification from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States. I think that means he can't.
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Frank Bruni appears to reflect the feelings of most Democrat House and Senate members. Assume things were reversed - the Republicans had control of the House and the Democrats had control of the Senate. Further assume a Democrat president had conducted himself in the exact same manner as Donald Trump; the same phone call and the same threat to withhold defense funds to the Ukraine for political reasons; and the same outcome occurs - $400 million in funds were released before the Ukrainian president made any concessions. If a Republican House impeached the president, would a Democrat-controlled Senate convict the Democrat president? Would Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Gerald Nadler and Chuck Schumer respond to a Democrat president in the same way they have responded to Donald Trump? I’ve thought about this question since the Trump impeachment began. I believe a Democrat Senate would not convict a Democrat president which leads me to believe Washington is deeply involved in a wholly partisan impeachment process. Both Republicans and Democrats would behave in the same exact manner if things were reversed. Of course this is just my opinion.
3
@Jake Opposition to the impeachment process based on the idea that voters are the ultimate and only legitimate body to decide the question of the removal of a President is a mistaken nod to the base of the current incumbent. As a conservative who lives in a parliamentary democracy and observes your travails from a distance I can only reflect that words of Edmund Blake (Tory) to the Electors of Bristol to send a person of good repute to Parliament to vote their conscience is their responsibility. It seems to me that the current lawyers for Trump's defense are happy to toss an ingrained conservative principle to the winds for mere political advantage.
18
@Jake It's an interesting question, but I can't get my mind arounf any of the people you mentioned denying witness or evidence at a trial. Their careers are actually quite different than their current opponents, people like Mulvaney, Nunes.
11
@Bill Atkinson I merely posit that Senate Democrats would not convict a Democrat president under the same set of circumstances; all conjecture but wholly believable. I’m not suggesting that this should have been left to voters to decide in November.
1
When encouraged in an email that I sent to Senator Tillis (R-NC), his response were the same tired talking points that the Republicans have been espousing since the impeachment inquiry began. It would be interesting to know if this is boiler plate from the WH or Trump campaign or RNC.
18
@Kent Good on you to let your senator know what you think. (Another talking point is no one is paying attention, let alone forming an opinion not already manufactured by Fox and Friends.) You probably don't have to pay attention to the canned response. But guaranteed, the staff members in Senator Tillis's office are paying attention to what you wrote and letting him know.
1
I couldn't agree more, and on every point. If it wasn't so sad it would be hilarious hearing Republicans crying about fairness, and let the voters decide, when they have done everything in their power to rig elections, from local to national, by gerrymandering and purging voters from the rolls. Fairness only works one way for Republicans - in their favor. And cheating is OK if they do it.
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@Michael Gilbert
Republicans whine about letting voters decide Trump's fate because they are confident the fix is in with Russia to put both houses of Congress in their hands, and return Trump to office. Victory in this trial is a way to show Putin what they can do for him.
1
Prof. LaCroix's second point strikes me as an awful one:
"You only get an impeachment vote when people have changed their minds. … The votes comes from the House, and we know, from things like the midterm elections, that some amount of people have changed their minds. Another party has gained control of the House. That has to be telling us something."
Better syntax might make that argument more seductive but would not keep it from corrupting the discussion of impeachment. We need to be perfectly clear that impeachment is *not* about extemporaneous mind-changing. The Constitution does not concern itself with signs that a president has simply fallen from favor with the public. Though impeachment is a political process, it's not a political barometer. The reply to the Republicans' sophistry about vote-canceling should go like this:
Say I'm elected president. It's a thousand pities, but there it is. A sufficient number of voters (fortuitously distributed) chose to trust me with the powers and responsibilities of the office. I then proceed to abuse those powers and throw off those responsibilities. Impeaching me on such grounds doesn't amount to canceling people's votes, because they can't have voted me in to do what a president must not do. On the contrary, I've violated their trust and must therefore be removed. Any voters who say they wanted a rogue president all along can be ignored. Any who say it's for them and not Congress to judge me are fighting the Constitution.
28
The flaw in that reasoning is that Trump voters do not feel that he has violated their trust.
They did not vote for him to insure honest government, but to stick it to minorities, atheists, liberals, and anyone else not aligned with making America white and Christian.
They voted for a dictatorship and it’s what they’re close to getting.
2
This is a complete replay of 2016 when Mitch Mcconnell wouldn't allow Obama's supreme court nominee be Merrick Garland reviewed by the senate for confirmation - because of the election. The election would decide. Obama was canceled as a president with full powers because he was within a year of the end of his term.
Once it works it is in the political bloodstream. Infectious.
55
@ab2020 It will be ironic too because future Senate leaders will be emasculated by Presidents with more brain power and focus than Trump, and McConnell will have allowed that to happen.
1
The republican party, funded by libertarian billionaires, has played the long game successfully, locking in advantages not typically enjoyed by a minority party. They are desperate to hold onto their power, and are willing to do anything, and I truly mean ANYTHING, to maintain it. When they lose power, they know it's unlikely they'll ever get it back.
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@Markymark: If we do not send Republicans packing, Republicans will send earth including themselves packing. That is the choice Republicans offer.
15
@Markymark please share more details... honestly I’m naive about the libertarians. I believe you but definitely don’t see much on this. Always thought it was the lobbyists..
1
Follow through on your logic, which I think is correct. Trump is neither a billionaire nor capable of playing a ling game. He has no political philosophy. I think it most unlikely those oligarchs who've planned and funded the nearly complete transition of American government to their exclusive benefit just used Trump. He is a useful tool. But when our democratic institutions, free press, and courts are all sufficiently under their control, then Trump will be replaced by someone of their choosing. My guess is it will be a hired gun, because these people don't do actual work. that's for peasants and fools.
1
"...McConnell and other Republicans are determined to spare their party the humiliation of Trump’s removal and to protect themselves from his wrath (and his base’s fury) if he isn’t saved."
After watching as much as I could stomach of the President’s defense team argue “alternative facts” this morning, surely their own defense arguments may encourage at least 4 Republicans senators with “moral courage” to vote to bring in the key witnesses Bolton, Mulvaney, and Pompeo.
Should any of these witnesses be thus "allowed" by “Maleficent Mitch” to be put under oath, it's conceivable that Trump/Pence will enjoy an early departure. Thereby clearing the GOP's path to holding the Senate by their sudden acquaintance with the “actual facts."
If the GOP can get a moderate ticket together by this summer’s convention, then “Almighty Mitch” may also keep his job AND a Republican White House with a more compliant president.
Sadly, as one commenter noted echoing Mr. Bruni’s quote:
"I think the only liability for the GOP bigger than having Donald Trump on the ticket is not having Donald Trump on the ticket."
10
I have been considering your voting. I understand the Electoral College has a long history. However, 2 partisan votes, which could go to one party, 1.5 candidate votes for one candidate, and 0.8 candidate vote for another candidate, that could be a concept worth some thought
2
@M. C. Major This would see a president elected to represent the federal state in addition to a political party!
If not, US citizens could possibly have a vote for a party (which would determine the party which will be administrators from and through the White House) and rank four or five candidates for president each party has provided (which could be used to figure out which in the winning party performs the duties that are associated with the presidential office).
@M. C. Major
[AN EDIT]
US citizens could possibly have a vote for a party, which will be used to determine the party that administers the presidential office, as well as ranking the (possibly) five presidential candidates each party provided at the beginning of this electoral procedure (to be used to figure out which in the winning party occupies the position of president).
I have been considering your voting. I understand the Electoral College has a long history. However, 2 partisan votes, which could go to one party, 1.5 candidate votes for one candidate, and 0.8 candidate vote for another candidate (they might belong to different parties) could seem some interesting concept! Each party could field two hopefuls, one of whom would be more centrist, more attractive than the other to voters not with the party, so as to capture the weaker candidate votes.
2
@M. C. Major Maybe not that great. Just I imagine a lot of voters vote the Party not the person into the presidency, yet the person who wins seems very independent – I am right?
Parties should field two candidates and every citizen get two weighted votes, one each for a different candidate.
1
@M. C. Major Maybe not that great. Just I imagine a lot of voters vote the Party not the person into the presidency, yet the person who wins seems very independent – I am right?
Parties should field five candidates and every citizen will choose a party (this vote will determine the winning party) and rank the five candidates in each party (to determine who in the winning party is to be president).
Lindsey Graham chimed in: “I really do believe that the best person — group of people — to pick a president are the voters, not a bunch of partisan politicians.”
Hey Lindsey, Trump should be disqualified from ever running in presidential elections. Why? He is trying to steal the 2020 elections. (Last time around, WikiLeaks was his partner in crime). Another reason: Candidates for high office - by tradition, not law - always release their tax returns. VP Pence released his. This refusal should make Trump ineligible for high office. Is Trump cheating on his taxes - that's why he is hiding it?
45
@Mike Persaud But if he was cheating, wouldn't the IRS have caught him? I think he's trying to hide his close connections with Russian oligarchs through all kinds of loans and other financial dealings.
5
@J.Sutton; The thing is this: Trump and Pence represent a slate. Pence released his, Trump refused/made excuses. It sure is strange and deeply suspicious about his real motives. No candidate since 1960's has failed/refused to release tax returns. Something is ominous - maybe indeed it would reveal connections with Russian oligarchs.
Lindsey belongs to a strange breed of politicians. If a Democrat had done this, Lindsey would be up in arms. Lindsey represents the worse form of pack-animals' mentality. No scruples. No principles whatsoever.
3
When Republicans say “let the voters decide,” they aren’t talking about brown voters like me - they are alluding to Trump’s minority base that has a strangle hold over this country through the electoral college.
84
"The election can’t be the remedy when the election is what’s at issue."
Absolutely true. The Republican arguments are so lame as to be laughable: "The Democrats hate the president, they are trying to reverse 2016, the president did nothing wrong (that's the worst one).
If he did nothing wrong, why did he refuse to obey subpoenas?
Of course we know why, because he could. He could extort Ukraine because even if caught, it was unlikely he'd be removed. There's a dreary inevitability to all this, that there is simply nothing this man can't do without accountability.
I wish more people were exercised over this (aside from FOX News), which is very bad news for this country.
Don't the American people know what's at stake when we're no longer a nation of laws?
282
@ChristineMcM
Of course we do.
The election of 2018 showed that. Now we prepare ourselves gor November 2020.
We'll triumph again.
10
How can the voters decide anything when this administration hides everything? The recording of Trump's meeting with Parnas and big donors is truly scary. It was carefully explained to Trump that Russia wanted to invade and occupy all of Ukraine and that Ukraine vitally needed our support, including military support. The only thing that seemed to catch Trump's attention was that Ukraine had large oil deposits and that the ambassador, a hold over from Obama, had dissed Trump. For Trump to sell out an ally, that seriously needed our support is not news, but this video firmly shows his use of our military aid to support his own personal ends. It is the original back room meeting, establishing, beyond doubt, that he should be removed from office.
114
Our nation, it’s leaders, and it’s citizens, are all broken beyond repair. At this point in time, perhaps this is how we end, rather then find it within ourselves to recall our foundation, our constitution, and our moral clarity.
No, I did not think so.
16
It is also utter nonsense that impeachment would "deny the American people the right to vote." It is in the same class as the absurd claim that impeachment is a coup or "overturning the election." Impeachment would leave a Republican (Pence) in the White House, not Clinton.
As to voting, there is apparently no rule against an impeached and removed POTUS running again. So, the GOP could re-nominate Trump instead of nominating 'President Pence' if it wished. The base could vote for Trump even if he was not nominated...
Of course, McConnell (he of no integrity) loses whatever argument he had when he acknowledges that if Trump gets a chance to nominate another SCOTUS justice this year McConnell will not only allow it, but facilitate the process. So much for the people's right to speak.
166
@Anne-Marie Hislop If impeachment were considered a coup, then why would impeachment be installed in the Constitution?
23
@Anne-Marie Hislop You are incorrect about Trump being able to run again. The impeachment articles specifically ask for his disqualification. In the 15 impeachments, most but not all of those convicted, were disqualified. It requires only a majority for to disqualify, not 2/3.
20
@Anne-Marie Hislop The Constitution says that if the President is impeached he/she cannot hold any Federal Office again.
8
House changed hands for Democratic presidents also, so, yeah, a referendum but not in the way the author impugns. Considering who is calling it the lamest defense, they must be doing something right for the president.
Our duly elected legislators should do what they were sent to Washington to do: Address real problems of everyday Americans. This impeachment circus is just political posturing and attempts to condemn a Trump for doing what every politician does. The Biden’s, for example, are clearly corrupt, but it’s sort of to be expected of politicians. The elect is in a little over 9 months, let the voters decide. Oh, that’s right, the great Schiff doesn’t think voters are capable of such decisions.
4
@T Smith Having listened to a hundred iterations of, "There's an election in a year. Let's wait for that.," I was extremely pleased by one of Mr. Bruni's concluding remarks: "The election can’t be the remedy when the election is what’s at issue."
That one statement has been raging through my mind for months and now, finally, someone with a louder voice than mine is saying it. Thank you, Mr. Bruni.
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@T Smith Here we go again! Here we go again! Having listened to a hundred iterations of, "There's an election in a year. Let's wait for that.," I was extremely pleased by one of Mr. Bruni's concluding remarks: "The election can’t be the remedy when the election is what’s at issue."
That one statement has been raging through my mind for months and now, finally, someone with a louder voice than mine is saying it. Thank you, Mr. Bruni.
13
@T Smith
Mr. Smith,
While I agree that the relationship between Vice President Biden's son does seem unseemly, his father held back aid until a prosecutor who was NOT investigating the company Hinter Biden was working for was removed from office. This is a matter of record. If you are aware of evidence of corruption on the part of either Vice President Biden or his son please present it. Simply parroting Trumps falsehoods does not make them true.
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At this point the GOP and Trump are correct unless Senate Republicans are threatened with impeachment for failing to act impartially and aiding and abetting Trump in obstructing justice.
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If you have a government whose sole function is to carry out “the will of the people”, you have a mob rule. Democracy is not about the tyranny of the majority; it is about protecting the rights of the minority. Impeachment is happening because Trump has violated the law of the land - not to mention that his withholding of military aid to a country fighting for its survival against aggression can also be construed as a war crime. Whether the majority of Americans are on board with this or not is irrelevant. The Senate should do its duty as it sees fit without taking into account partisan passions. None of this, however, changes my conviction that Trump will be acquitted and re-elected if the Democrats nominate Sanders or Warren.
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Democracy is about majority rule.
In itself, it has nothing to do with protecting the rights of the minority.
That is what the Constitution is for.
Unfortunately, it has been too effective, with the Electoral College and the Senate empowering the minority over the majority.
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As an outsider looking in, it seems that your constitution, in the words of the day, defines the process of impeachment as a way to test for and counter abuses of presidential power. The two house process seems straightforward. The lower house investigates and determines by simple majority if there is sufficient justification to present to the upper house for an objective ruling requiring a 2/3 majority to evict the POTUS from office. The 2/3 majority would be unlikely achieved by a single party but technically still possible.
To paraphrase Hamlet, "he doth protest too much" springs to mind.
Surely, if the POTUS is innocent of the accusations, there would be no objection to accepting any evidence including that of key witnesses? It seems that blatant obstruction and obfuscation has been and continues to be DT's defense.
Don't your Senators have an obligation to ferret out the truth and make an informed non-partisan decision with the collective view deciding the outcome?
It seems some senators and alarmingly the senate leader have declared the result beforehand and done their best to cripple the process. What are they afraid of? If the evidence doesn't stack up, so be it, but you have to first allow the evidence. I'd be more worried about your failed senators than the POTUS's impeachment.
Good luck.
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@Mark Our Senators do, "...have an obligation to ferret out the truth and make an informed non-partisan decision...", but there's no penalty for not doing so.
Sad.
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@Glenn Thomas: There is a sure penalty. The nation will forever pay for the attack against Judge Garland, an intentional attack on the nation by tyrants in the Senate.
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@Mark Your statements are spot on.
Americans ought to know these things--I learned the points in your first 2 paragraphs in high school.
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"And lawmakers shouldn’t defer to their constituents at every turn. Those constituents expect them, over the course of their legislative terms, to use their judgment as better-informed proxies for the people they represent."
Maybe at one time the above was true, but not anymore. Lawmakers are constantly polling their constituents to determine what they want, even when their constituents' desires are based on ignorance. Lawmakers' primary interest is in getting re-elected, not on determining what is good for the country or even their own constituents.
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Frank, instead of the long-winded essay, you could have simply said that the will of the 63 million who voted for a Republican President will NOT be invalidated if Trump is removed from office? Those 63 M explicitly voted for PENCE to become president if Trump cannot continue his term for whatever reason.
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Except it appears Pence was involved too, but not as much, but it would cause less disturbance to warn him but keep him, sigh!
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What continues to astonish me with regard to these Senators and Representatives slavish devotion to a man so bereft of honor, decency, conscience and loyalty is they think he will return the favor. They think he will always value and protect them.
If he gets another four years, he will not be constrained by them, the courts or anyone else. He will have used them to serve his purpose, declare himself ruler for life and they will be discarded.
He told them who and what he is when he recited the fable - he's the scorpion, they the frog - it's just his nature.
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The President determines the culture of the government which he leads. It's the single greatest power that he has and like it or not -- Trump's personality done much to set the tone in Washington. Like attracts like and Trump has surrounded himself with people who "follow the leader." Sad.
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@Deb Follow the Citizens United money that is pouring into Republican coffers. We don’t even know the source of these funds because they don’t have to be recorded, but the mere threat of the Party funding an opponent from the right is enough to scare the bejeezus out of Republican Senators.
Shows you how much courage they have — including Romney who probably has more money than Trump and who certainly shouldn’t be wetting his pants in fear — but apparently is.
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Republicans just keep repeating whatever story, narrative or lie suits their desires - over and over and over again. Regardless of reality. Regardless of the truth. Regardless of the law and the Constitution. The constitution explicitly allows impeachment and removal of the president and other officials for a variety of kinds of misconduct. Can they not read?
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@Marc Bee
True. But, impeachment was never meant to a partisan weapon which it has now become.
Pity the next Democratic president with a Republican controlled House as he or she will surely be Impeached.
Censure would have been a much better option.
The Dems will rule this losing act for years to come.
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@Norville T. Johnstone Hard to imagine ever again a House controlled by Republicans. (California used to be a purple state not that long ago. Now Republicans are a "superminority" in the state legislature, a distant third behind "no party preference," occupy no statewide offices, no Reep US Senators, and only 6 of 51 House Representatives are Republicans. Someday, it may only be the Devin Nunes/Kevin McCarthy Show, but only for the comic relief.)
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@Norville T. Johnstone
Trumps behavior transcends party politics, just as Clinton's and Nixon's. They all committed offenses worthy of at least consideration for impeachment. The only thing that makes it political in this case is that the Dems are the ones with the willingness and ability to bring the charges in the first place.
Trump and the behavior he emboldens from the electorate that support him and the Republican Party members that bury their heads in the sand are the biggest menace to democracy our country has faced since the Civil War. I hope we survive it.
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The framers of the Constitution in 1789, apparently not fully trusting the common sense of the common man, did not provide for the voters to elect their Senators; rather Senators were chosen by their own state legislature. Not until the 17th Amendment took effect in 1913, were Senators directly elected by the (male) voters of their state.
Senators are elected to a 6 year term, with no restrictions on how many. Unfortunately, many are career officials, bought and paid for by poorly-regulated campaign finance rules. Even so, they campaign year in and year out, dialing for dollars. There is no reason this year for them to defer to the electorate at large to decide the outcome of the impeachment trial. We do not have participatory democracy for this. Senators should vote to receive and weigh the evidence themselves as our designated representatives. That's what our taxes pay them to do.
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A full column dedicated to one of the Republican arguments against impeachment is giving the Party of Trump more respect than the entire Republican Senate gave to the trial of a President caught using tax payer money to bribe/extort an ally to gin up a fake investigation for personal political gain.
That reminds me. I need to pick up one of those fidget spinners in case I EVER hear a Republican, ANY Republican, taking about respect for the Constitution or American values or ... well ... anything short of a resignation speech.
It will give me something to do until someone with credibility, someone worth listening to, someone who believes in democracy talks again.
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You and they speak as if the people elect the president. For you to speak that way plays into their hands. As we all know, the electors elect a president and the Supreme Court is currently considering the question of whether an elector must represent the vote tally in the state or Congressional district which they pledged to represent. Imagine that! It is not even close to the people electing a president in the US.
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Convicting President Trump on the basis of the impeachment charges would not be overthrowing the government and undoing the 2016 election results since the president would still be a Republican.
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@Western Montana Doctor
But not the one that was duly elected AND he would be prevented from running in the next Election which, if we are being even remotely honest here, is what the Dems really want.
They know they have no chance in the general election.
Trump will easily get elected and likely get another Supreme Court appointment. Surely a conservative woman to avoid another search back to perhaps Junior HIgh School Days this time looking for past transgression of any kind.
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@Norville T. Johnstone
VP Pence was duly elected along with President Trump to serve as his back up in the event Trump temporarily or permanently could not do his job for any reason.
It is my understanding that the Senate can vote to convict Trump and remove him from office while still not disqualifying him from running for president if he is once again nominated as the Republican nominee.
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@Norville T. Johnstone Impeaching the President would not make him ineligible to run again. Not likely, but entirely possible.
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We expect people of good character and experience to step up when confronted with a terrible situation that they can remedy. In fact, we call them Good Samaritans, or courageous, or even heroes. Just this week I watched a horrifying accident unfold. A self-described medic calmly moved into place, firmly quieted a bystander yelling unhelpfully, and gently and effectively removed two people from an overturned car in the middle of 6 lanes of traffic. He then reported to the first firefighter on the scene: "Two conscious occupants safely removed; situation stable." If only the Senate had people who could see their duty in an unfolding tragedy, safely remove the Occupant-in-Chief and report to their constituents: "Situation Stable".
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@NFM
Thank you for this inspired comment!
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We’ll never know who really won the 2016 Presidential election. And I fear we’ll never know the real winner in 2020.
Last time, they interfered (mostly) by spreading misinformation. This time, they may interfere by changing vote totals, causing election machines to crash, or maybe just making votes disappear.
The only thing we know for sure is that the Russians are four years smarter than when they interfered last time. It’s not clear that we’ve kept pace.
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@K D P paper ballots. all votes counted at local level with supervisors watching.
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indeed. Republicans don't WANT us to know the winner of the 2020 election. Just as they pretend Clinton didnxt really win the ladt one (if actual votes mattered, which they do not under a Republucan Supreme Court). Cheating in elections in plain sight is their final effort to take over completely and it has worked so far. Soon it will be too late to save that quaint concept of "democracy" we used to care about. One can be forgiven for hoping it won't turn out to have been a "bloodless" coup they have managed to inflict on this country. And why arenxt the streets of Washington full of the losers in all this? Has TV made us into the "walking dead" who care about nothing and crave only to eat something?
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@L'historien In NY there is presently an effort to use an electronic machine to mark a paper ballot!
It doesn’t take a genius to understand the fallibility of this system and how easily it can corrupt an entire election. If you use paper ballots make sure they are marked by the hand of the voter — not by a machine via a screen.
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Having listened to a hundred iterations of, "There's an election in a year. Just wait for that." for months, I was extremely pleased by one of Mr. Bruni's concluding remarks: "The election can’t be the remedy when the election is what’s at issue."
That one statement has been raging through my mind for months and now, finally, someone with a louder voice than mine is saying it. Thank you, Mr. Bruni.
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@Glenn Thomas
Exactly, This impeachment process started because Trumpie was trying to CHEAT at the elections. So he is in effect NOT letting the voters decide.
Their entire argument is built on sand.
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@Glenn Thomas The American election system was systematically hijacked by sophisticated hackers operating on behalf of a nation-state in 2016. Ever since that time, we have been playing with an American press that hasn't owned up to the truth of the situation.
We are still playing with people wishing it was a Hollywood yesteryear...when we are dealing with reality.
And...reality bites.
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@Glenn Thomas
Quite right. And aside from all the public evidence of attempts to bribe a foreign government to subvert the election, Trump is further subverting the election, the power of the people to judge him and decide whether he should continue as President, by obstructing Congress.
Along with his criminal act of obstruction itself, one of his high crimes, he is preventing us from knowing the full level of his criminality. If that were known, it might even now change some minds, whether for conviction and removal from office now, or removal via the ballot box in November. Trump is subverting even that.
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"...not a bunch of partisan politicians..." Wouldn't that be the electors in the Electoral College?
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Given the problems that Frank delineates here, one possible solution to try is to make all the elected officials "closer to the will of the people" by reducing their terms to two years.
Many state legislatures, even those with so-called "upper" and "lower" chambers, already make their legislators stand for re-election every two years, and New Hampshire and Vermont have even done this with their governors.
But, of course, we'd probably have to even the playing field that accrues to incumbency advantage by instituting term limits and full public funding of much shortened legal election cycles as well. (The latter, of course, is something most other Western democracies instituted long ago.)
And, while we're at it, if we're going to continue this two Senators per state now matter how many people live there thing, we really need to expand the number of House members. The 438 limit (including the 3 from DC) is not anywhere in the Constitution; it was set by statute, and could be changed by statute. I'm fairly certain that the Founders would have thought that having each Representative constituency average over three quarters of a million citizens was absurd (the Constitution only indicates a 30,000 minimum for a representative, and while no one could foresee a nation of 330 million, I don't think anyone foresaw an artificially truncated number of legislators, either).
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The argument that since it’s an election year, no more legislative activity should occur until after citizens make their choices on Nov. 3rd doesn’t make sense, especially when you consider that Russian hackers are busy trying to infiltrate social media accounts and interfere with automated voting tabulation systems. And let’s not forget ongoing Republican efforts to mandate voter ID laws and purge voter rolls. Let’s face it, Frank, the GOP should really be called the GCP — the Grim Cheating Party — since that’s the only way it knows how to win.
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Whatever people feel should happen with the impeachment, it looks like the verdict will be in the 2020 presidential election. Many want impeachment because of a feeling President Trump will win in just over 9 months from now. Lack of trust in democracy is long-standing- many years ago, Plato was disillusioned with his democratic government. In “The Republic,” Plato wrote about the behaviors ideal for people to whom you would entrust your state: “good memory, readiness to learn, breadth of vision and grace, and be a friend of truth, justice, courage and self-control.” We need these qualities more than ever in the leader we elect in 2020, as opposed to 427 B.C. when the risk of nuclear war and its devastating consequences were not present.
40
If I recall correctly, Hillary Clinton won the majority of votes in the 2016 election. So much for letting "the people" decide. But we need to look at this feeble argument about the "voters deciding" to see what Republicans really mean. What they mean is that "their voters" should get to decide everything - and only the voices of their voters count for any actions they take.
The fact is, a majority of us are sickened by this "president". But we understand now that our votes mean nothing. And we know that Trump and the Republicans will do everything within their power (and with Russian assistance) to ensure that Trump is re-elected - including cheating and widespread vote tampering. This isn't a surmise or supposition. We know they will do this. They have said as much.
So when the Republicans claim that we should "let the voters decide" they mean only those voters who will keep them in office. The rest of us no longer have a voice in this government, even though we are the majority.
I have been shocked at the passivity of Americans on the left, though, as they continue to look the other way while Trump consolidates absolute power. People of any other democracy would have been in the streets, every week, for the past three years. And yet, Trump and the Republican Senate have effected a bloodless coup, with absolutely no sustained opposition from us.
Think your vote still counts? Think again. Oh, and that democracy you thought you had? Look for it in your rear view mirror.
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@Orion Clemens
When I say things like what you've written about the next election, my husband replies, "That's what they WANT you to think—that your vote doesn't matter and that Trump's win in 2020 is inevitable. Don't buy into their messaging." I hope we all vote in Nov. 2020 in numbers too overwhelming to ignore, but also agree with you that the past three years of little sustained, organized resistance by citizens and normalization of this bloodless coup in the media, which continue to use polite, "balanced" language about what's going on, has been so dismaying, dispiriting, and all the other "dis" words.
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@Orion Clemens
I was raised in Brazil during the military dictatorship of the 1960-80s. I know what it’s like to live in an authoritarian country. I came to know people that had family members disappeared. I was in college in the 1980s when people took to the streets to demand the country return to democracy. Unfortunately it is slipping back to dictatorship.
I now live in America. I’m now a proud American citizen. I must say most Americans born and raised in America have no idea what’s ahead for them.
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@ElKay Some of us have been resisting (Indivisible, All On The Line, etc.) since 2016 and through that resistance we managed to elect a Democratic senator in Alabama. But come 2020 when Trump is on the ballot my vote here won’t count. The Electoral College assures my vote won’t count. I think often of moving in with my daughter in Georgia or joining a friend who moved lock stock and family to AZ where resistance will affect the outcome.
Which leads me to comment on your second observation: a fair democracy is not possible until Fox News’s outright lies are muzzled. If the billionaires running for president really want to help, let them take up that cause
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I am not sure what the president's lamest defense is, but I know what his strongest is. I heard it in this morning's presentation by his defense team. In one hour his defense lawyers completely destroyed 21 hours (really months) of insinuation and obfuscation. The charge against Trump is that he abused his power by pressuring the Ukrainians to investigate the Bidens in order to receive aid that was on hold. The defense lawyers showed in short order that that is impossible. Never mind that the Ukrainians said there was no pressure. Never mind that Trump never mentions any quid pro quo in the phone call. Never mind that nobody could testify that Trump told them to withhold funds for an investigation. Never mind that all the diplomats said that investigations never came up in any discussion with the Ukrainians. Nobody in the US government or representing Trump or Trump himself ever told the Ukrainians that they needed to conduct an investigation to get aid. We know this, because the evidence is overwhelming that they found out about the hold on aid when the news leaked in a Politico article over a month after the July 25 phone call. In other words, for almost the entire time aid was being withheld, the Ukrainians did not know about it, and they only found out from a news article. Clearly, there was no effort to pressure the Ukrainians. This trial is over. It should be dismissed on this evidence alone.
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@Charles Never mind that the aid was withheld. Never mind that a request was made to announce an investigation. Never mind that the aid was only released after the whistle blower filed his complaint.
Never mind.
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@Charles @Charles You would be best to read up on what you write about. Then you can have an INFORMED opinion. So much of what you write is just not true.
Example: "Nobody in the US government or representing Trump or Trump himself ever told the Ukrainians that they needed to conduct an investigation to get aid. " WHAT? The "three amigos", ever heard of them? Rudy Guiliani, as well. Why do you think Zelensky said on the infamous call he was ready to conduct the investigations? You must not receive any news in Kabul, it looks much different here where the truth is disseminated.
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@Charles You would be best to read up on what you write about. Then you can have an INFORMED opinion. So much of what you write is just not true.
Example: "Nobody in the US government or representing Trump or Trump himself ever told the Ukrainians that they needed to conduct an investigation to get aid. " WHAT? The "three amigos", ever heard of them? Rudy Guiliani, as well. Why do you think Zelensky said on the infamous call he was ready to conduct the investigations? You must not receive any news in Kabul, it looks much different here where the truth is disseminated.
27