OPINION:
’Tis the season for holiday hopes, but Democrats in Washington may have gotten too greedy with their political wish list. Just as leaders of Congress’ blue party eagerly launched their closing arguments in favor of impeaching President Trump for allegedly wielding the nation’s foreign policy apparatus for personal gain, TVs from coast to coast displayed the president rocking the NATO summit in London for the good of the red, white and blue. Never-Trumpers pinning their impeachment hopes on convincing Americans not to believe their own eyes is a wish that would make Santa Claus roll his baby blues.
Wednesday marked the second phase of Democrats’ impeachment “inquiry” hearings, as Rep. Adam Schiff handed off a 300-page report from his House Intelligence Committee hearings to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler for the drafting of charges worthy of impeachment. Three witnesses for the accusers — Noah Feldman of Harvard Law School, Pamela Karlan of Stanford Law School and Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina Law School — described how the U.S. Constitution can be folded, bent, spindled or mutilated to catch Mr. Trump in a legal trap whose only escape is a one-way exit from the White House.
The impeachment campaign has materialized as a do-over of the erstwhile investigation conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller that concluded in July with a dearth of evidence to support the allegation that the Trump 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia. This time, Democrats have interpreted a July 25 diplomatic phone call between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a request for Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in exchange for a White House meeting and military aid.
Republicans have countered that the president’s call, purportedly flagged by a politically motivated whistleblower, simply sought help uncovering Ukrainian involvement in the sources of political dirt that triggered the Mueller probe, and there was no expressed link between a probe of the Bidens’ dealings and the provision of U.S. armaments.
Releasing their own 122-page rebuttal, Republican lawmakers gave short shrift to the Schiff proceedings: “The Democrats are trying to impeach a duly elected president based on the accusations and assumptions of unelected bureaucrats who disagreed with President Trump’s policy initiatives and processes.”
The president’s Judiciary Committee defenders were only allowed one supportive witness — George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley — who blew his own whistle on a process that has morphed from apparent witch hunt to de facto coup attempt.
Mr. Trump called out the mischief in undermining the presidency with a televised impeachment hearing at the moment he was practicing American leadership among the 29-nation alliance, describing Democrats as “very unpatriotic.” Heading for the NATO summit Monday on the occasion of the organization’s 70th anniversary, he said, “President Zelensky just came out and said the [U.S.] president did nothing wrong and that should be the end of it.” That’s not the end of it, though, because “while the cat’s away, the mice will play.” Certain rats will, too.
Ponderous issues stand before the international alliance that has served as a buttress primarily against Russian aggression. French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for a strategic redirection toward the war on Islamic terrorism that Russia might be enlisted to join, as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s switching of labels for friend and foe in the Syrian conflict, have rattled NATO’s institutional unity.
A frequent critic of the alliance’s careless commitment to fiscal responsibility, Mr. Trump was forced in London to take on the unlikely role of NATO champion, even while Democrats prepared to pillory him at home.
The ongoing impeachment process is built upon a foundation of presumptions and pretensions. Detractors who testified against Mr. Trump during the earlier, House Intelligence Committee hearings swore to no direct evidence of a quid pro quo, bribery, extortion or other criminal act on the part of the president. Rather, the case rests upon, in the words of U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, the “presumption” that U.S. assistance was conditioned upon a probe of the Bidens. And fairness is replaced by trickery when partisan committee chairmen serve as judges during televised inquisitions.
In putting impeachment at the top of their Christmas list, Democrats have made a naughty wish. When it comes to removal from office, Americans may decide to slip an eviction notice into their stockings instead of the president’s.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.