I wish the House was moving slower on the impeachment inquiry. It’s not that I’m eager to drag out the impeachment saga, I just think that if the House Democrats would really commit to following every avenue of criminality, wrong-doing and bigly shenanigans, they would end up with an airtight and bulletproof impeachment argument. We all know that as soon as the House sends the impeachment to the Senate, this sh-t will die a slow death by Mitch McConnell. So… draw it out. Let’s find out exactly how bad everything is. But no, Nancy Pelosi announced today that she’s asking the House to draw up the articles of impeachment.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that she has instructed House Democrats to draw up articles of impeachment of President Donald Trump, saying he had abused his power.
“Sadly, but with confidence and humility … today I am asking our chairmen to proceed with articles of impeachment,” Pelosi said. “The facts are uncontested. The president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security by withholding military aid and a crucial Oval Office meeting in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival.”
“His wrongdoing strikes at the very heart of our constitution,” she added. “Our democracy is what is at stake. The president leaves us no choice but to act. If we allow a president to be above the law, we do so at the peril of our republic,” she said.
The announcement tees up a House floor vote in the coming weeks that would make Trump just the fourth president in American history to face an impeachment vote, and the third to be impeached by the House of Representatives.
“In America, no one is above the law,” Pelosi said. “The president has engaged in abuse of power undermining our national security and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections. His actions are in defiance of the vision of our Founders and the oath of office that he takes to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States.”
I’ve been arguing for a long time that the impeachment inquiry – and eventual House impeachment – is necessary, full-stop, without consideration of party politics and internal House politics and the calendar and timing. Just do what’s right and don’t worry about the effect on the primaries or 2020 election or whatever. I still believe that. But I also believe they should be drawing this out, Jesus. There are still additional crimes to be investigated!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I agree in principal but in practicality, doesn’t much matter how much dirt is dug up…
it’s not going to matter at all to the GOP or their base how airtight the case is. So let’s get moving on this.
Neal Katyal, a SC lawyer does say this (in his Twitter feed):
“Impt note on future: If the Senate doesn’t vote to convict Trump, or tries to monkey w his trial, he could of course be retried in the new Senate should he win re-election. Double jeopardy protections do not apply. And Senators voting on impeachment in the next months know this.“
This is VERY good to know!!
I think Kellyanne’s hubby also pointed out (and it was affirmed by Elizabeth dela Vega) that they can vote for impeachment but not send it to trial. Or impeach with the current allegations now and continue investigating and adding on while the case is on trial. Open ended. All the legal theory on Twitter is very interesting. You should really follow it. I hope Dems are reading it too.
I wanna trust Nancy’s political strategy, but… going fast is not a good idea. It’s what he wants. And if he gets a victory here will galvanize his base because they will feel justified in crying witchhunt.
His base is already galvanized. Their enthusiasm for the racism and cruelty of Trump’s administration will remain fanatical no matter what happens. Adversely, anyone who believes he should be impeached or maintains they are undecided 🤷♀️, will almost certainly keep their opinions, again – no matter what happens.
Might as well get the show on the road at this point.
I feel like her instincts have been very good so far. I’m willing to trust her on this. Adam Schiff and others have said that investigations will be ongoing even though they have sent the report to the Judiciary Committee.
OMG, you included that pic of Trump with his sippy cup just to make me laugh. Which I needed because I see the future on this one, and it is bleak. They don’t have the votes in the Senate. I agree, he should be impeached. Just because you can’t win, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fight the fight. However, I know when Senate Repugs let him walk (which they will), he’ll start screaming from the rooftops (i.e. twitter) about how he was not guilty. NOT GUILTY. NO WRONGDOING.
While I also know, none of it makes any bit of difference to his followers, I cannot bring myself to snuff out that tiny flicker of hope that throughout the process, enough reasonable people will actually pay attention to what’s truly going on here and topple the republican party in the next election.
And I only just read about some phone records they’ve just received which shows who called whom, for how long, and on what dates. This needed more investigation. But then, I feel as though nothing matters considering how lock-step the Rs are moving in. Doesn’t matter what evidence–hard, cold, evidence, even circumstantial as the phone records are–they’re all covering for him. Everyone last blasted one is complicit. Can members of the Senate be impeached or censured or something? If so, by whom? The rest of the Senate?
Nunes needs to be removed from the intelligence comm. And he was stupid enough to sue CNN. Let discovery begin.
I don’t know. I’ve had a feeling that the timing is *exactly* the way Pelosi wants it. Throughout the summer even, it’s been… drip… drip… drip… drip… One Congressperson a day saying they were for impeachment. Then a whistleblower. Then secret testimonies, public hearings…
A report comes out at 5pm, then there’s a hearing the next day. It’s all very calculated and orchestrated. The Republicans are mad about reports and such not being issued, it’s because they know that this is all a strategy and they can’t do schiff about it. (heh. See what I did there? 😉
Supposedly the Senate has blocked out January for the trial. That feels significant to me, and I can’t help but wonder if this is all arranged to coincide with primaries/ ballot deadlines. It’s extremely Machiavellian of me, but what if the Republicans are in agreement with this strategy as a way of forcing DJT to resign or lock him in as a losing candidate? I don’t know… I’m expecting a few more huge developments between now and mid-January though, if the past is anything to go by.
I don’t understand. Is the House Trial over or is this just the first step in the House?
Impeachment is the first step. It’s kind of like the grand jury indictment. Once that happens, the actual trial is in the Senate with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding.
I know the Senate part. GOP senators have already said that they won’t indite Trump. My question is is this the last thing the House will do or are they going to keep on investigating?
There are about 50 other impeachable offenses that Trump should be tried for–especially the emoluments stuff. The Senate isn’t going to do anything about it.
I wonder if these GOP goons will act up like they are doing now (DUI Gaetz Gym Jordan and the other idiots) in front of Roberts. That would be something. Roberts can shut that crap down.
@Milly, they can impeach him again for all the other million crimes he committed. Double jeopardy doesn’t apply to impeachment. And even it did they could impeach on the other crimes so they would still be considered new trials because they trying a different crime. This will be end of the this particular impeachment trial in the house before it moves to senate.
So far Nancy has been a brilliant chess player and I trust her this time as well.
I think Dems plan on sending this to the Senate end of January or February.
I’m choosing to trust her as well. She’s played it right so far, and there’s nothing we can do either way, so I’m just going to try to have faith in her that this is the right course.
It probably doesn’t matter as the GOP lead Senate won’t convict, but it had to be done.
Is your time line considered an accelerated process? Genuine question. That seems longer than what I’ve been reading. I’m getting a sense that they are trying to wrap this up by the end of December, which in my head seems crazy fast. End of Feb would be ideal.
As I understand it, they are still going to investigate. They are choosing not to wait for court rulings as the Administration continues to obstruct. A lot of it falls under Abuse of Power and Bribery. I think the calculus is pretty good here (IMO). The trial will be in the Senate with Kamala, Booker, and Klobuchar teeing up some good TV moments in an Election year. Republicans will have on record that they voted to forever change the country and move us toward autocracy and they will have to defend that vote. That combined with Uncle Joe’s new ad is pretty powerful.
I may be too idealistic, but it’s going to put those old fashioned Russia hawks and vulnerable (ie Collins, Earnst, and Garder) Senators in a bind. It puts the Senate MORE in play IMO.
I’m happy to hear they’re still gonna investigate as that was my main concern. Also, I hear Pelosi has not scheduled a vote yet, so… maybe things aren’t moving that fast?
I agree with you. Nancy wants all votes on record so Democrats can campaign effectively against the Wormtongues. I’ve heard the GOP are angling for a secret Senate vote. Abject cowards!
I would be hopeful that with a secret ballot in the Senate the ones who privately admit that this is a gross abuse of power (and evidently, there are more than a few of them!) but fear the retaliation of the Racist Base would find their courage and vote to remove. A secret ballot might give cover to allow electorally vulnerable senators to vote their consciences instead of knuckling under. I can dream, anyway…
Why is it that we have to do everything “right”, one misstep, (like uttering a rich kid’s name) may bring the whole thing down. When clearly, the GOP is guilty of unending corruption, lies, craziness, bordering on treason.
Is it just because we are bound by truth, legitimacy, reality and sanity??????
B/c the GOP is definitely not.
Why is the balance of power so incredibly OFF?
I think you answered your own question. Two sets of rules. The Dems actually play by them and the GOP disregards them. It’s been the most distressing part of the Trump era for me.
Because the GOP runs every damn thing. They own the financial institutions, they run the corporate media (and obviously the wingnut media), they run software companies. I don’t care if alleged liberals head any of these groups, when push comes to shove, billionaires act on the behalf of billionaires. What doesn’t Google fix the japery that happens to old political web results; have you seen how right wingers have gamed the results so you have to go four or five pages before you can get away from right wing “sources”? The media has been merrily both sides. It’s essing bullcrap and I AM SICK OF IT.
Nancy Pelosi has been showing us for DECADES that…”she’s GOT THIS”…and they need to move fast and furious regarding this…because Tramp et al are STILL doing MAJOR CRIMES and violating human life as we speak…however, with ALL THIS LIGHT ON THEM…it means that they can’t raise hell and havoc at the pace they were moving
I’ve never understood why the dem’s didn’t just make impeachment their version of the endless Obama-care repeal votes. Thats ALL house republicans did for years, vote after meaningless vote and it worked, the republican base loved it! It was a way for Republicans to look like they were doing something while reassuring their base that they were still focused on their non-sense priorities of taking away people’s healthcare. So why aren’t the house dems just voting to impeach him every single day?? Let the pigs in the senate shoot em down and then just start over. The man is a rapist, impeach him for that. He’s constantly violating the emoluments clause, impeach him for that, etc. Impeachment is a form of political censure it’s not the same as a criminal conviction… it’s a political tool and I totally agree that Nancy and the house dems are not using it to the best advantage of their party, or the country imho.