I’m convinced that God saved Tom Brokaw from multiple health scares in recent years just so he could be alive and bring sense to the ridiculous impeachment debate that occurred Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
He did it so beautifully that to paraphrase his remarks would be a crime against humanity. So here is Brokaw’s full quote, in contrasting the looming impeachment of President Nixon in the 1970s vs. the freak show happening in Washington right now:
Brokaw’s monologue was already perfect, but what made it even better was that it came just after Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson had been on the same show, befuddled that an impeachment hadn’t already taken place. Robinson was there to talk about his latest column, wherein he asked what exactly would Trump have to do to get impeached — as though removing a nationally elected president was a simple errand like picking up the dry cleaning or writing a lazy column.
“I’ve been back and forth on the wisdom of taking that step, but there’s one question that nags me,” wrote Robinson. “If the impeachment clause of the Constitution wasn’t written for a president like Trump, then why is it there?”
Impeachment, according to Robinson, is the “moral” thing to do.
Lest there remain any doubt that liberals in the national media work in concert (or at least borrow ideas when they get low), Charles Blow at the New York Times wrote just one day before Robinson, “What the hell is it going to take, Democrats?! What evidence and impetus would compel you to do the job the Constitution, patriotism and morality dictate?”
What it would “take,” as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., knows well, is a straight shot that can’t miss.
There’s a reason impeachment and removal of a president is a political process and not a criminal one. It requires a clear reason beyond reproach (like a crime by the president), overwhelming public support, and the certitude that both chambers of Congress can follow through.
Democrats don’t even have one of these three things.
Now-former special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of a conspiracy with Russia. The head of the Justice Department has said he didn’t see enough evidence to pursue obstruction of justice charges — in part because there was no initial crime that required justice-ing! Polls conducted after Mueller’s final report was released show that a majority of Americans — up to 61%, according to a CNN survey — are against impeachment and removal. Lastly, Republicans hold the Senate, where the effort to remove would die, for reasons both partisan and logical (no crime, no public support).
Impeachment is, of course, only half of the equation. Democrats can impeach without expecting Trump’s removal. And this is precisely what Brokaw was talking about — impeachment as a weapon to embarrass and, yes, harass a political opponent.
The hysteria from Robinson, Blow and others in the media over Democrats who have yet to embark on what should be a deadly serious constitutional procedure tells you everything you need to know about how little regard they have for American democracy.
Impeachment has become their plaything.
