The evidence accumulated over the last two months of impeachment hearings leads to the conclusion that President Trump wanted the president of Ukraine to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and the unsupported claim that Ukraine conspired with the Democrats to interfere in the 2016 election.
Now House Democrats have announced two articles of impeachment accusing the president of abuse of power and obstruction of the Congressional investigation. The House vote whether to impeach the president is expected to follow party lines, which will lead to a trial in the Senate.
It is notable that as Democratic leaders explained the two articles Tuesday, they raised the stakes of the impeachment gambit. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler invoked the highest possible risk to the country.
“He (Trump) endangers our democracy, he endangers our national security,” Nadler said. “Our next election is at risk. That is why we must act now.”
Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff sounded equally ominous warnings. “The argument ‘Why don’t you just wait’ amounts to this: ‘Why don’t you just let him cheat in one more election?’”
So, after pushing quid pro quo, bribery and extortion, now the issue is Trump might cheat in the next election? Does the United States Congress feel compelled to, for the first time in the country’s history, remove a president from office for what he might do?
I thought that’s what elections are for. Voters do, in fact, make decisions on who to entrust based on what they have done and what they may do while in office. That’s the job of the voters and not the responsibility of Congress to second guess the outcome of the election or prevent voters from deciding the next one.
As Rich Lowery, editor of the conservative National Review wrote, “The Democrats believe that the 2020 election is too important to be left to the voters.”
Trump’s attempt to get dirt on the Bidens by holding up military aid to Ukraine was reckless and an abuse of power. The House should vote to censure him. A few moderate Democrats are even proposing that, but it’s doubtful that will happen.
Trump’s mercurial behavior is enough to drive even his closest advisers crazy. Trump has dug enough holes during his term to give the Democrats plenty of opportunities to take back the White House.
However, the Democrats run the risk of being obsessive. The more they invoke the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, the fate of the Republic and the security of the next election, the more they sound like they’re losing it.
And that could cost them in November.