Pizzazz!

As you know, I have strong feelings about the Trump administration. I used to write about this a lot but I realized I was commenting on a lot of little scandals that turned out not to matter in the grand scheme of things. I figured I would hold my fire until something really big happened and then comment on that.

Impeachment hearings, only the fourth in 230 years of American history, seem like a big deal (and bursting with PIZZAZZ! like a Busby Berkeley production), so here’s what I think.

I’ve been listening to the hearings in the background at work and following all the news and analysis, and after two weeks of testimony, it is clear to me that the House must impeach President Trump and the Senate must remove him.

If you take the testimonies as a whole, they paint a damning picture of a president who subverted foreign policy to benefit his presidential campaign. He clearly conditioned $391 of foreign aid to Ukraine upon the president’s announcement of investigations into his political rival, Joe Biden. This is a blatant abuse of power that makes Watergate look like a tan suit. Those taxpayer dollars had been appropriated by Congress under Article I of the Constitution and it is not in the president’s power to withhold that. It is vital that Ukraine receive this money so Russia does not get a further foothold into its former republic, which would be very dangerous and cost a lot of lives. Withholding this aid, or threatening to do so, sends a message to other heads of state that they can manipulate us if they carry out the domestic political errands of the president.  

This incident is Trump acting in his own interests and not in the interests of the United States, and that cannot stand.

Call it a bribe or a quid pro quo or whatever synonym you want but it is clear that a bribe is what this was. Trump’s response has been to repeat “I want nothing” or “no quid pro quo.” (I guess this is like when Nixon said “I am not a crook,” after which everyone was convinced and let the matter drop.) The summary of the July 25 call to Zelensky, the testimony of multiple witnesses and common sense have borne this out. The president and his chief of staff have admitted that they were asking other countries to illegally intervene in our election. Most damning of all was Gordon Sondland’s testimony, which confirmed that multiple white house officials were involved, including the vice president, secretary of state, secretary of energy and president’s lawyer. Sondland said everybody was in on it, and I haven’t seen anything to dispute that.

From what I’ve seen, the Democrats have made their case very effectively. What do the Republicans have? Not much. Devin Nunes moos out some conspiracy theories about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election, which Fiona Hill debunked yesterday, and also repeats “Steele dossier, Hillary Clinton” and all the other wingnut greatest hits. Jim Jordan yells and whines. The Trump administration and State Department obstruct justice by barring witnesses from testifying. They’re doing this because this is all they have—the Republicans can’t defend Trump’s behavior, so they don’t even try. Instead, Trump smears Marie Yovanovich during her testimony, which is witness intimidation. The Republicans insinuate that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a Purple Heart recipient, has (((dual loyalties))). This is disgraceful.

The president must be held accountable and impeachment and removal is the only way to do so, especially when he refuses to be held accountable and sees himself as above the law or other oversight. The alternative to impeachment is to sit there and take it, and that is unacceptable. Unfortunately, the Democrats are outraged by what the president did, while the Republicans are only outraged that he got caught.

I would hope that the Senate also votes to remove the president. I know: LOL. But I still hold out hope. Stranger things have happened in the last four years. Just because the Republicans are not going to fulfill their Article I responsibilities and act as a check on the executive branch, that does not absolve the Democrats of doing the right thing and impeaching.