"DC Report," Founded By Pulitzer Prize-Winning David Cay Johnston, Trump's First Biographer
David Cay Johnston: "Trump Is Not A Loyal American... There Is A Traitor In The White House"
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Investigative Journalist David Cay Johnston Calls Trump "One Of The Most Successful Criminals In America"And "The Greatest Con Artist In The History Of The World"
Trump's Eight Crimes
Opinion Columnist
|
|
I have favored a narrowly defined impeachment process — focused on Ukraine — because I thought it would be easier for people to understand. If President Trump’s supporters understood what he had done, a small portion of them might defect, damaging his already low approval rating and threatening his support among congressional Republicans.
|
But that hasn’t happened.
|
Trump’s approval rating today is around 41 percent, where it’s been for a long time. The Ukraine story has dislodged few of his supporters.
|
Given that, I’m no longer confident that a narrow impeachment process is the best political approach for House Democrats. True, a broader set of impeachment articles — encompassing Trump’s other violations of his oath of office — probably won’t win over many of his supporters, either. But it is also unlikely to make him any more popular. And it at least has the virtue of being the right approach on the merits.
|
So for my column this week, I tried to answer a question: If the House were going to forget about political tactics and impeach Trump strictly on the merits, how many articles of impeachment would there be?
|
The column includes a historical reminder: In the impeachments of both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, some articles were considered and voted down, which didn’t have any apparent negative effect on the process. House Democrats don’t need to rush this through.
|
- Laurence Tribe, a legal scholar, has suggested an intriguing middle ground in The Washington Post, with a small number of broadly sketched impeachment articles: “I am advocating that there be two or, at most, three articles of impeachment together describing a single, continuous course of conduct in which the president placed his personal and political interests above those of the nation.”
- Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg Opinion also argues that the House should not rush through the process:
|
| Would Democrats in marginal districts shy away from supporting a more comprehensive impeachment? Perhaps. But that’s fine: As long as the Ukraine articles pass with a unified Democratic vote (or close to it), there’s no harm in winning by a narrower margin on the others or even losing them. In the impeachments of both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, articles were defeated along the way and promptly forgotten by everyone. And it’s just as likely that those in tough districts would welcome a chance to split their votes. |
Forward this newsletter to friends...
|
No comments:
Post a Comment