House Republicans should support a Democratic motion Thursday to open a formal, transparent presidential impeachment investigation and specify rules for the process.
Republicans who deny there is a reason at least for an investigation are pushing a blatantly dishonest line. If Republicans examine all the evidence and then determine nothing impeachable occurred, that is their prerogative. Clearly, though, the allegations at issue are manifestly serious, and President Trump’s already-known behavior was at least objectionable if not impeachable.
Let’s first understand what the Democrats are doing. After weeks of unwisely and unfairly running an impeachment investigation without voting for one, and doing so behind closed doors and no set rules, the Democratic majority finally will formalize the process as it should have done originally.
“This resolution establishes the procedure for hearings that are open to the American people, authorizes the disclosure of deposition transcripts, outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it considers potential articles of impeachment, and sets forth due process rights for the President and his Counsel,” wrote Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a letter to fellow House Democrats.
It remains disturbing that the letter was addressed only to Democrats, not the whole House. It also should be imperative that the “procedures” and “due process rights” she promises are available for review by the president and by House Republicans for at least 48 hours before the vote. Republicans should have a chance to object or offer suggestions for amending the process.
Nonetheless, unless the process is manifestly unfair, Republicans should vote for it. They owe it to the Constitution and to the public to examine all evidence with open minds.
If a Democratic president had asked a foreign government to investigate a U.S. citizen who was to be a chief rival, in the absence of any U.S. investigation into that citizen, without any alleged violation of U.S. law, then almost every Republican in the country would be demanding an impeachment investigation on those grounds alone. They would be correct to do so.
Now add in the element of copious evidence at least pointing to, if not yet absolutely proving, the use of extortion (i.e., the withholding of military aid) to force such a foreign investigation into an American citizen. There is no honest way, none at all, to deny that this raises quite important issues of abuse of power.
This is especially true when the president has been doing an end-run around the legally approved aid process by using his private lawyer, who specifically said it was in pursuit of the “narrow interest” of Trump in hopes of keeping the rival from becoming president without answering for the allegedly wrongful conduct. In short, the lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, admitted to using government power to act on behalf of Trump’s private political interest.
Republicans would be yelling bloody murder if a Democratic president had done such things.
When then-Speaker Newt Gingrich opened official impeachment procedures against President Bill Clinton in 1998, Democrats rightly objected to the scheduled timeline and the unlimited scope of the investigation. Even then, though, 31 Democrats voted for the resolution to begin the investigation, and as many as 100 indicated they would have done so if the scope and schedule had been more limited.
If perjuring oneself about sex was at least theoretically impeachable, surely so is the misuse of military aid as fodder for extortion in a scheme to hobble a domestic political opponent.
Republicans who pretend otherwise merit utter contempt.
