To grasp the weakness and poverty of the Democrats’ impeachment effort, you don’t need to listen to the Republican responses. You simply need to read the impeachment articles themselves.
They tell the story of a party that was always planning to impeach President Trump and which has now settled on intentionally vague and airy charges. Why? Because Democrats are preemptively trying to avoid political accountability for what they are about to do.
In particular, the second article of impeachment is laughable. It alleges “obstruction of Congress.” Not “obstruction of justice,” an actual crime, but of Congress.
If you’ve followed the impeachment process, you know that the evidence does not support the Democrats’ charge.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has issued subpoenas. The Trump administration has argued that it is not legally bound to comply, citing the doctrine of executive privilege. This is a debatable question that should be decided in the courts, but Schiff made a decision not to wait for the courts to adjudicate these claims of executive privilege. Democrats have instead deemed Trump’s unwillingness to comply with mere requests an impeachable offense. They are choosing to see “high crimes” in the typical executive branch muscle-flexing that is as much a tradition in Washington as the National Christmas Tree.
Back in 2013, for instance, the Republican-controlled House subpoenaed former IRS official Lois Lerner to question her about the partisan weaponization of the agency. Lerner showed up, issued a statement, and then refused to take questions. The House held her in contempt of Congress, yet the Justice Department declined to prosecute her or, importantly, to impeach her boss.
Just a year earlier, in a closer parallel, the House held a cabinet member in contempt of Congress with its groundbreaking vote against Attorney General Eric Holder. He had refused to hand over documents relating to the Fast and Furious scandal because President Barack Obama asserted executive privilege. The Justice Department declined to prosecute its boss, and, more importantly, Congress refrained from impeaching Obama.
During the Clinton administration, the House Oversight Committee voted to recommend Janet Reno for contempt of Congress thanks to the attorney general’s refusal to turn over internal Justice Department memos regarding the president’s impeachment. This is the closest historical parallel to Trump’s refusal to comply with the nonlegally binding requests of Democrats. Even then, the House eventually refused to so much as vote on the contempt charge against Reno, let alone take additional measures against anyone else.
At best, Democrats have caught Trump going 70 in a 55 mile per hour zone after having cheered on Obama and Clinton for going 100.
If Schiff and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler want to nail Trump with a legitimate obstruction charge, they could try some actual justice and see if he obstructs it. They could try to get their subpoenas upheld in court and dare Trump to defy them. That’s where impeachment would become potentially appropriate.
Impeachment, after all, is supposed to be a last resort, a remedy for Congress to employ when the president refuses to follow all the other rules. Democrats haven’t reached their last resort. They are impeaching Trump just because they finally have what they consider a plausible excuse.
The public seems to be figuring this out. During the impeachment hearings, a razor-thin majority of the country supported removing Trump from office. This was, in part, due to Democrats’ arrival on a poll-tested charge of “bribery.” But focus groups can be fickle, and Democrats are now trying to frame their charges using different language. It still isn’t working. Now that the country has read the articles of impeachment, opposition to Trump’s impeachment and removal from office has overtaken support for it.
By avoiding the courts and thus making their own effective ruling on the limits of executive privilege, Democrats are abusing their power in the same way they’ve accused Trump of doing. The public isn’t having it. Not only did they rush through their investigation, refusing to issue legally binding subpoenas, but they also created a risible, bogus charge in the process.
Democrats overstepped their mandate to check the president, and the slowly sinking support for their partisan impeachment shows it.
