Democrats are divided about the issue of impeachment following the release of the (redacted) Mueller report.
The special counsel arguably gave Congress a “road map” for pushing the obstruction case, but some fear going that route would be political suicide to the extent it might polarize the country further and validate the president’s “it will never be enough for Democrats” line.
On Thursday evening, Jerry Nadler did not rule out impeachment in comments to reporters during which he also made it clear that the House Judiciary Committee will subpoena the full report and intends to hear from Mueller himself.
One Democrat who isn’t torn about whether to get the ball rolling on ousting Trump is Elizabeth Warren.
Never one to hold her tongue, Warren spoke out on Friday. “The Mueller report lays out facts showing that a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election to help Donald Trump and Donald Trump welcomed that help”, Warren said. “Once elected, Donald Trump obstructed the investigation into that attack.”
You’re reminded that Mueller suggests the only thing standing between Trump and obstruction were his insubordinate subordinates, so to speak. “The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests”, Mueller wrote.
As Warren went on to say Friday, Mueller pretty clearly intended to give Congress the last word on obstruction, not William Barr. “Congress has authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice”, the special counsel said.
“The correct process for exercising that authority is impeachment”, Warren flatly stated, adding that “to ignore a President’s repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior would inflict great and lasting damage on this country, and it would suggest that both the current and future Presidents would be free to abuse their power in similar ways.”
In case you’re still unclear as to what exactly Warren is trying to say, she drove the point home as follows:
The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States.
Soooo… no Trump versus Warren in 2020, then? Bummer.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department thinks it’s really uncool of Jerry Nadler to subpoena folks.
“[This is] premature and unnecessary”, DoJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec said Friday. Barr released the report “with only minimal redactions [and] the Department of Justice has also made arrangements for Chairman Nadler and other congressional leaders to review the report with even fewer redactions”, a statement reads.
For his part, Mitt Romney is literally nauseous. “I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the president”, Romney said in statement. “I am also appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia – including information that had been illegally obtained; that none of them acted to inform American law enforcement; and that the campaign chairman was actively promoting Russian interests in Ukraine.”
Early Friday, Trump lashed out at the report, calling it “Crazy” and insisting that some parts of it were “bullsh*t”. His second tweet ended with this:
“happened, a…”
Nine hours later (literally) he picked the thread back up:
“….big, fat, waste of time, energy and money – $30,000,000 to be exact. It is now finally time to turn the tables and bring justice to some very sick and dangerous people who have committed very serious crimes, perhaps even Spying or Treason. This should never happen again!”
After that, Trump called The New York Times and the Washington Post “Truly, the Enemy of the People!” in between a retweet binge that included Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Matt Gaetz, Fox News interviewing Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan, and Jay Sekulow, as interviewed by the same Sean Hannity.
Because “stable”.
Romney better be careful. Trump and his homies will take his lunch money and then roll up on his girlfriend after school. Ain’t no way any of this gets any traction. The Dems don’t know how to play hard ball like the Repugs and the country voters are in a stupor that’s been coming on for years. Trumps already shoppin’ for a black Escalade with blacked out windows and gangster spinners for 2021.
Given how damning the report is when you actually read the thing, I think that there might be a pretty significant ‘Richard Burr’ effect take hold–where individual Republicans don’t want to be the ones getting their names marked down for sticking their necks out for Trump, like Burr so clearly does in the report. There will probably be a period, while this all gets sorted out, where many Repubs (especially Congressional leadership) don’t strongly stick up for Trump, but also where many don’t voice any strong disapproval (a la Susan Collins’s milquetoast statement yesterday). Most of the visible (i.e. on TV) Repub support right now is being voice as “lets just move on from this, it’s over” not “Trump did nothing wrong.” Classic political hedging.
This sets the stage for a period of significant political meta-stability, where the Repubs seem very united toeing the party line–seem very stable–but will only take a small displacement, a crack, to make them bolt for the exits and jump ship.
So this idea of “Trump and his homies” rolling on non-believers definitely feeds into the notion that the Republican party is stable and united, and won’t be affected by any of this. But this is really meta-stability–most Repubs are ignorantly malicious, not stupid–and I think that there is definitely a chance that this thing gains traction.
I’m not sure where the crack could form in the GOP. For Nixon, the crack came because republican voters flooded the representatives with “enough is enough” letters, but today’s Trump base will never turn against Tiny. Remember that he could kill someone, and nothing would change for those voters.
Having said that, Tiny’s taxes could be the equivalent of Nixon’s tapes. Maybe there is a hero in the tax department willing to leak them (like Deep Throat). They certainly will not be released before 2020 as long as trump can find lawyers to work for him.
Yeah the taxes are an interesting question because the law as I understand it sets up a dialogue between the IRS commissioner and Chairman Neal–Trump’s lawyers really shouldn’t be part of the process. But it looks to be a pretty cut-and-dry issue, even if it goes to the courts.
First, the transmission from the IRS commissioner to the Chairman of the House Ways and Means is governed by 26 USC 6103, the commissioner “shall” furnish the returns. This whole question about proper legislative purpose and the GOP talking point about whether Neal’s request is actually a pre-textual move to hide a purely partisan purpose shouldn’t hold water when the issue is presented to a court. If the court finds that Neal is within his constitutional boundaries in making the request, then the court usually won’t look into the legislative purpose and whether there are any hidden pre textual motives. There is further pressure on the IRS Commissioner, as 26 USC 7214 says he could get 5 years in prison for “failing to perform the duties of his office.”
Second, the transmission of the returns to the public is a more difficult issue. Ironically, the GOP might have dug their own grave on this. A few years back they were feeling some ‘conservative-oppression’ and thought that the IRS was discriminating against certain Tea Party groups and slow walking their tax exempt status. The then-Chairman of the House Ways and Means Dave Camp voted to publicly expose the returns of liberal groups to show the unequal treatment: “Look, 6103 provides for this,” Camp said, according to a transcript of the closed session that was later made public. “The statute provides that when the committee, in its oversight role, finds egregious information, we have the authority to release confidential taxpayer information.” (https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/how-to-make-trumps-tax-returns-public-the-gop-may-have-cleared-a-path)
Of course, if and when the Democrats point to this precedent, Camp will probably be called a RINO and a shill for the libs. Nevertheless, the precedent is there.
I do agree, though, that this thing could take a while. But the above makes the case for hastening that process.
incidentally, i don’t think i’ve ever said “every man, woman and child in America has the absolute right to see Donald Trump’s tax returns”. i don’t even know that i would agree with that statement. the main point, i think, is that voters decided the House should flip to Democrats and now, Ways and Means says their oversight requires a look at Trump’s returns. that seems pretty cut and dry. i think the GOP and Trump are creating a straw man with this “dangerous precedent for Americans” line.
H,
You make it sound like panic.