Your bag is empty.
On the day House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the articles of impeachment to be filed against Donald Trump, Hogan Gidley, the principle deputy press secretary to the president walked purposefully in the rain across the White House North Lawn driveway sporting a khaki jacket and a matching Burberry umbrella.
Looking like an affable Inspector Gadget, Gidley strolled over to a group of reporters and took questions about the president’s next step in the impeachment process before walking away.
He said he’d picked the umbrella by accident.
Gidley, calm and self-assured, gave the president’s usual talking points against impeachment. But the facts are clear: President Donald Trump is just the fourth president in history to face impeachment. Two of them, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, were impeached but escaped removal after favorable votes in the Senate. Nixon would’ve been impeached and removed from office but for the fact he quit after members of his own party told him he was screwed.
Trump isn’t worried about such possibilities. Gidley’s demeanor and the president’s bombast, combined with the hubris of the Republicans in the Senate, indicate no one on that side of the aisle currently will publicly vote against Trump.
Thus Trump, Gidley and others are breathing easy: The Donald will be impeached but won’t be removed from office, and in 2020 the United States may make history and re-elect an impeached president after he “ignored and injured” the national interest, according to the Democrats who filed charges against him in the House.
The Democrats have drafted two articles of impeachment. In the first Trump is accused of “Abuse of Power,” and in the second, “Obstruction of Congress.” They have limited the scope of their charges to the incident first brought before the public by at least two whistleblowers who were concerned about a telephone call between Trump and the president of Ukraine on July 25.
The Democrats have refrained from bringing anything else, including the Mueller investigation, into the mix. According to sources in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, that was to ensure everyone in the majority caucus stays on the same page and few if any drift over to the president’s side of the aisle. Even so, some moderates are pushing to censure Trump instead of impeach him.
Trump has banged his fist repeatedly on the table saying due process hasn’t been followed while refusing to participate in the proceedings.
Trump has countered his “Abuse of Power” charge by saying he was ferreting out corruption in the Biden family, there was no “quid pro quo” to exchange the announcement of an investigation for Ukrainian military aid and everything he did he did for the country—not himself. He says this despite the fact he never mentioned anything about Biden-bred corruption in 2017 or 2018 with Ukraine as they received military aid. It was only after Joe Biden decided to run against Trump in 2020 that Trump became interested in any perceived corruption.
Trump has offered no defense of the second charge other than to say he doesn’t have to deal with those who are Constitutionally bound to check and balance his power. Further, he has banged his fist repeatedly on the table saying due process hasn’t been followed while refusing to participate in the proceedings. Screaming “hoax” and “witch hunt” just spikes his vitriol.
Trump and McConnell are reportedly clashing over the scope of the Senate trial, with Trump favoring a grand spectacle complete with subpoenas for the whistleblowers, Adam Schiff, Joe Biden, Biden’s sons and maybe Thanos, Iron Man, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for good measure.
McConnell favors a short and sweet wrap up, wanting to dismiss impeachment as folderol and get back to appointing conservative judges. McConnell also fears longer proceedings create a greater chance for supporters to flee the president, or for the president to shoot himself in a vital area of his anatomy. McConnell and his G.O.P. caucus grow weary from defending the president from so many self-inflicted wounds.
Pelosi on the other hand has put the impeachment in stark terms. Without checking the president, without holding him accountable, she has suggested that the Republic will cease to exist and Trump and future presidents will inherit the powers of a king, despot or dictator.
According to Pelosi, it isn’t about politics; it is about the Constitution.
On that matter, she is right. There is no denying facts. The House has the right to impeach Trump. He has the right to a defense. The rules have been followed, no matter what Trump says about due process, and we’re headed for a showdown in the U.S. Senate shortly after the Christmas break.
Why was Lavrov even allowed to visit the White House after insulting the president, his secretary of state and the entire country?
Lost in all of this is an overwhelming Russian presence. Sergey Lavrov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, showed up at the White House Tuesday after a joint press conference with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department.
There Lavrov thumbed his nose at the United States, saying there was no proof of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, despite 17 different reports from intelligence agencies confirming the interference and the fact that two dozen Russians were indicted as part of the Mueller investigation. Twelve of those indicted were sanctioned by the Trump administration.
Pompeo offered no real pushback, effectively allowing Lavrov to shit all over the United States in our own backyard. Trump said he discussed election interference with Lavrov in a “very good meeting” at the White House afterward, but refused my question on the South Lawn when I asked Trump if he specifically warned Lavrov against interfering in our 2020 elections. Why was Lavrov even allowed to visit the White House after insulting the president, his secretary of state and the entire country?
Lavrov’s visit is interesting not so much because it occurred the day the Democrats unveiled their impeachment charges, but because it occurred at all. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has never been to the White House. Zelensky is at war with Russia. Zelensky is our ally and Russia has tried to implicate Ukraine in election interference while denying their own responsibility for hacking the 2016 election.
Trump should not only be impeached; he should be ashamed of his behavior, making the United States subservient to Russia. When did the G.O.P. become the water boys for Russian hegemony?
There are many who believe Trump has completely lost it and those he’s hired to work for him never had it. Pompeo is seen as a conniving dolt, and Attorney General William Barr is seen as a cartoon Jabba the Hutt, slithering in his fealty to Trump and serving the interests of Russia just for a chance to sit at the table of power.
With all this chaos, it looks like no one can lay a glove on Trump. Russia’s got his back.
Trump, in an early-week apparent onset of dementia, spoke before reporters about Americans flushing toilets up to 15 times and other plumbing problems. There was much laughter, but all of it is an example of chaotic spin. Trump doesn’t care if you laugh at him, Barr or Pompeo. He cares if you know what he’s up to with Russia.
Trump has keen survival instincts and has manipulated the press for years, but perhaps the reason for the calm demeanor from Gidley and others at the White House boils down to this: With all this chaos, it looks like no one can lay a glove on Trump. Russia’s got his back.
The rest of us, however, if we can get beyond the mindless ramblings of those who have attached themselves to Trump like the caboose of the human centipede, need to stay focused on the issue that is larger than impeachment, larger than Trump and larger than the daily outrage he, his minions and even the opposition represent.
Pelosi is right about the challenge to our republic. She is also correct that it comes from within, but it also comes from outside. Russia cannot dictate to us who we are. Having lost the Cold War, and the human species having decided that it would rather survive than blow itself into extinction with a quick exchange of explosive radiation, Russia is still at war with us today.
It is insidious and as dangerous as it is subtle. It is a battle against the truth, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent who is extremely adept at misinformation, leads the charge.
When a Russian Foreign Minister can come to the United States, blatantly lie to us about the damage Russia did to us and the U.S. Secretary of State offers little pushback, doesn’t cancel a planned meeting with our president and that president later says what a “great meeting” he had with the Russian Foreign Minister—well folks, that is a signal of the end of our Republic.
As Lavrov exited the White House on Tuesday I asked him if he planned to go to Trump’s rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania later that night. He didn’t answer and some laughed at the question.
But in today’s political climate it prompts a more frightening question: Who runs the U.S.?