Before accusing Republicans of rigging the Senate impeachment trial, Democrats might have first settled on one clear strategy to make their case that President Trump deserves to be immediately removed from office.
As of right now, Democrats are actually making four separate assertions.
First, they have an overwhelming, irrefutable body of evidence that Trump abused the power of his office and obstructed Congress’s constitutional duty to oversee the conduct of the executive branch.
Second, still more evidence and witness testimony are needed to build their supposedly rock-solid case.
Third, they don’t need to find any explicit crime or criminal conduct to pursue impeachment and removal from office.
Fourth, although there need not be any criminal accusation involved, the Senate trial should operate as a criminal trial.
These arguments collide with one another, demonstrating once again that Democrats aren’t very confident in any one path to fulfilling their desperate dreams of ousting Trump before the election.
For anyone who hasn’t followed this riveting tale about the president, a poor country called Ukraine, and a gas company by the name of Burisma Holdings, the trouble for Democrats began when they opted not to collect all of the witness testimony and evidence they wanted when they had the chance to do so in the House.
Now, they’re asking the Senate, where Republicans hold most of the power, to do that work for them. At the same time, while admitting that they haven’t accused the president of a crime, they want his trial conducted as a criminal one.
New York Times liberal writer Nicholas Kristof said on Wednesday that it appeared as though Senate Republicans wanted “a rushed, sham trial with no witnesses and limited evidence.”
This is another way of saying, “Why can’t Republicans just do everything the way Democrats say it should be done?” Well, because that’s not the way it works. We have two major political parties and not one because, in theory, they get their support from people who have opposing interests.
Democrats and liberals in the media can be upset that Republicans aren’t doing everything their way. But that doesn’t make the process a sham.
