donsurber.blogspot.com Fight the impeachment, Donald
President Donald John Trump listened to Mitch McConnell and played nice in the first impeachment. He did not assert his God-given right to a fair trial in which he could have exposed to the American people the dark winter of corruption by Biden and his son.
The Donald went along to get along because the fix was in.
But that led to Impeachment II and the fix is in again. This time Republicans will vote to against him and give Democrats the 67 votes they need to find the president guilty.
Official Washington wants to erase his presidency from history, and strip away his citizenship by blocking him from ever seeking office again. They want his head on a pike as a warning to others.
I told readers earlier that there would be a post-presidential impeachment after McConnell described its mechanizations to Republicans. At the time, news reports said McConnell somehow opposed trying The Donald. The opposite is true. McConnell is throwing Donald Trump to the Democrats. They will control his trial.
The impeachment is unconstitutional. Private citizens cannot be impeached, only officeholders can and then only to remove them from office.
The impeachment trial will be unconstitutional as well because Patrick Leahy will preside, not Chief Justice John Roberts. The argument will be that the chief justice presides only in the impeachment of a sitting president or vice president. Leahy as Senate president pro tem will be the Chief Kangaroo in this court.
After the Supreme Court rejects hearing President Trump's lawsuit to stop the trial, the Senate may simply vote without a trial.
But if they deign to give the man a hearing, he should seek at least 60 days to prepare his defense. Time is on his side because the longer he is out of office, the more the public will view this impeachment as unnecessary, mean-spirited, and embarrassing.
After he runs out of postponements, he should call witnesses.
The list should include Obama, who said of Republicans, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." Trump's lawyers should ask him why he did not apologize for saying that after a Democrats tried to assassinate 9 Republican congressmen who were practicing for a baseball game with the Democrats.
Trump's lawyers should also question Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, and other prominent Democrats who engaged freely in calls for uprisings and confrontations.
Also, his lawyers should ask Pelosi why she offered not to impeach him if he resigned or removed by the 25th Amendment. If her goal was simply his removal from office, then why did she impeach him knowing this would not end his presidency prematurely.
The press will report their replies as besting Trump's lawyers but the actual jury, which is the American people, may believe otherwise. The president does not have to win a majority of that jury. Rather, he needs to convince a majority of the Republicans to stand by him.
To that end, President Trump needs to bring up that first impeachment, and offer the defense that McConnell talked him out of.
The full speech at the National Mall should be aired. This would allow the nation to see what exactly the president said and to whom he said it.
Democrats want to try the case immediately, immediately, immediately, because they know any delays give people time to consider the absurdity of a post-presidential impeachment.
However, Democrats run the risk of delaying Chairman Xiden's reign. The plan is to hold the impeachment show trial concurrent with confirming Cabinet members and rubber-stamping his agenda.
Byron York asked, "But why should Republicans help Democrats with a kooky plan that would require voting to remove a president who is already gone?"
Answer: Because they hate Donald Trump and every one of the 75 million people.
However, York wrote, "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will again play games with the timing of the Senate impeachment trial. Remember that after the House first impeached Trump in December 2019, Pelosi held on to the articles of impeachment for a few weeks until she felt the political atmosphere was better for a trial. Now, she is holding on to the articles again, and there is nothing to stop her from holding on to them until April, or June, or whenever."
The delay is likely to be just a few days. She wants to wait until Chairman Xiden's inauguration swears to defend the Constitution, you know that document that Democrats now claim was written to protect slavery.
But injustice delayed is injustice denied.
President Trump soon should start asking the Senate very publicly some tough questions. Who will preside over this trial? What will the rules be for this trial? Will there actually be witnesses and depositions or will it be a fact-free show trial?
The government and those who run it may no longer believe in fairness, but the American people do.
Donald Trump needs to fight for himself and the 75 million who voted for him.
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