Rep. Adam Schiff and President Trump have this much in common: They both insist there is no middle ground in this impeachment debate. Either Trump must be impeached and removed, says Schiff, or Trump did nothing wrong, says the president.
This is a false dichotomy, and congressional Republicans should reject it. A presidential action can be wrong but not impeachable. This is almost too obvious to say. Presidents abuse power constantly, and the proper response is not usually impeachment.
But when faced with presidential misconduct, a congressman’s proper reaction is never to excuse the behavior. That, however, may be what Republicans propose in response to the Democrats’ impeachment push.
Testimony on Ukraine to date suggests Trump used presidential power with an eye to his own good more than to the national good. Pushing Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and the 2016 election, at best, distorted proper priorities and displayed a lack of concern about the appearance of impropriety. It was possibly something worse: a corrupt effort to use foreign policy to damage a political rival.
We made this argument two months ago, and it still holds.
That Trump’s actions rise to impeachable offenses is far from clear. What we see is hardly the ultimate abuse of power, and thus it’s a stretch to say it deserves the ultimate punishment. It was, however, inappropriate.
It is difficult for Republicans to give ground, faced as they are with Democrats and a relentless Resistance that will pocket any concessions and then continue to call for the greatest penalty. But Republicans can be better than their opponents — it’s hardly a high bar — and should call bad things bad.
Democrats are calling for impeachment and are insisting that wrongdoing, in this case, demands impeachment. Republicans are running to the opposite extreme and refusing to acknowledge that the president went too far.
Congress has the job of restraining the executive, and when half of Congress excuses an abuse of power, it makes future abuses more likely.
Republicans should admit that Trump’s demands on Ukraine were improper. If they are, reasonably enough, unconvinced that impeachment is the remedy, they should take other actions to steer Trump toward putting true national interests over petty personal interests.
