GOP REPS & SENATORS CONTINUE TO IGNORE THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

…Nancy Pelosi announcing that the House will present two Articles of Impeachment of President Trump

The Republicans could become responsible for the US becoming a dictatorship.

I have had some of my readers asking, “Where have you been lately?”  The answer is that I have taken time off for some personal issues, and I have been watching the televised Presidential Impeachment Inquiry.

What has become so absolutely clear is that the Democrats have had no choice in not going after the president.  If they were to ignore the lies, his approach to his “high crimes and misdemeanors”, his obstruction of justice and his obstruction of Congress, then either he could just continue his obstruction, or any other future president could do the same.

As it is, and regardless of whether the Senate allows him to stay in office, he will have that asterisk next to his name as being only the third “Impeached US President”.

A of today, Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment against President Trump.  These articles will focus on that abuse of power and that of obstructing Congress, and they will most likely be voted on by the full House next week.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) met with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and other committee chairmen Monday night after a nine-hour hearing. In that hearing, Democratic counsel laid out the party’s case against Trump.  

At an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal on Monday night, Pelosi said no final decision on the wording of the articles had been made.

“You think I’m going to tell you the articles of impeachment?” she said when asked about the matter. “We’re in a place where our members, our leadership of our committees of jurisdiction have now gotten the last input” about the conduct at issue, she added. “They’ll make a determination, a recommendation as to how we will go forward and what the articles will be.”

Under the current plan, the Judiciary Committee will vote on the articles this Thursday, and they will set up a floor vote for next week.

Describing Trump as a “continuing risk to the country,” Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.y.) forcefully accused the president of using his office to pressure Ukraine to launch political investigations and then trying to block Congress from investigating him.  “President Trump put himself before country,” he said. “The president welcomed foreign interference in our election in 2016, he demanded it in 2020, and then he got caught.”

Republicans on the committee sought to vigorously defend Trump, using parliamentary maneuvers, process complaints and occasional theatrics to disrupt the hearing and accuse Democrats of abusing the impeachment process in pursuit of a political vendetta.

It was sickening to watch and listen to the Republicans in both Houses spouting off in Trump’s defense.  They are very content to just ignore their responsibility for performing a check on the Executive branch as is required in the US Constitution.

A very constitutional representative such as Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI) actually said: “I think it’s an abuse of power,” in criticizing the Democrats for exposing phone calls involving a GOP member of Congress after their subpoenaing phone records of some of Trump’s associates. “They should be ashamed of themselves … Folks, you have made Joe McCarthy look like a piker with what you’ve done with the electronic surveillance involved.”

This is all the House’s responsibility for keeping a check on the president and his illegal actions.  The phone records showed contacts between Trump and the White House and those supporting members that were trying to get dirt on Trump’s anticipated Democratic candidate in the 2020 election.

The hearing did not reveal much new information about the underlying conduct at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.  Instead it allowed the committee lawyers to summarize the extensive existing evidence and to present opposing sides of the case.  With the dueling staff counsel arguing for and against impeachment, and at one point questioning one another, the hearing showcased how partisan the proceedings had become.

The partisan attitudes at the hearing displayed the growing closed-door cooperation between the two parties on other issues as they negotiated with the White House to complete several major legislative agreements before the end of the year. With pending deals on budget measures, a North American trade agreement (USMCA) and a new paid family leave initiative, Congress faces the prospect of ending 2019 with that rush of bipartisan legislation. 

But there could also be a party-line impeachment vote in the House that would be followed by a Senate trial early next year.  The Superior Court Chief Justice will preside over the Senate Trial, if one occurs.

There will be a lot of negotiating of the rules of the trial between the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)

As the hearing was taking place Monday, the Justice Department released a report that undercut Trump’s attempt to cast himself as a victim of an attempt by establishment figures to delegitimize his presidency.

The long-awaited report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz examining the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections.   Of course, the GOP has allegations of illegal spying and political bias in the probe begun ahead of the 2016 election, but found serious faults in other areas.  The report totally debunks these GOP allegations.

Horowitz concluded the FBI began its investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, on legitimate grounds.  “This was an overthrow of government, this was an attempted overthrow and a lot of people were in on it and they got caught, they got caught red-handed,” he told reporters.

Trump will meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia today.  As he faces charges of soliciting Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election, he will hold talks with the top diplomat of Russia, which all US intelligence officials say interfered in the 2016 election.  Russian President Vladimir Putin just met for the first time with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris on Monday to discuss ways to end a military confrontation between the two countries.  This war has already cost the Ukraine 13,000 lives.

Trump’s actions toward Ukraine are at the heart of the impeachment case against him.

Rep. Nadler (R-N.Y.), used his opening remarks at the impeachment announcement to preemptively dismiss a GOP complaint about the fast-moving impeachment timeline. He also referenced Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani, who traveled to Ukraine earlier this month to meet with officials who have peddled unsubstantiated accusations of misconduct by the Bidens, as well as an unfounded theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election.

“As we proceed today, we will hear a great deal about the speed with which the House is addressing the president’s actions,” Nadler said. “To the members of this committee, to the members of the House, and to my fellow citizens, I want to be absolutely clear: The integrity of our next election is at stake. Nothing could be more urgent.”

The Republicans continue to use the Dems impeachment inquiry as a partisan attack on a president that the Democrat’s  don’t like. 

But we all know that if the tables were turned and a Democratic President did the same things that Trump has done, they would be going after that president even stronger than they did in going after Bill Clinton.

The amount of lies coming in defense of President Trump by the Republicans is disgusting, but after it’s all over, will they see the light?  I doubt it.

As previously stated.  It will take the United States decades to undo the damage by this GOP president.  An we could actually stop as being a real democracy.

Copyright G. Ater 2019