Several months ago, Pro vs. Con contributors Matt York and Anthony Watts took on the issue of President Trump, Russia and the Mueller Report. Now, with an impeachment vote expected this week because of Trump’s phone call with Ukraine, they’re back for Round Two.
PRO / Matt York
Personally, it seems to me that our nation would be better off if President Trump was not removed from office. The citizens of our nation are so deeply divided now the result would likely be that our political parties emerge even more profoundly bitter.
However since impeachment does not in itself remove the official definitively from office (it is just the statement of charges against the official), I support any impeachment that makes its way through a vote of the House of Representatives. That is the process outlined in our Constitution. If I don’t support impeachment then I must have a suggestion for an amendment to the Constitution that I want enacted without a Congressional vote.
I am not in support of impeachment along party lines because it points to implacable partisanship. Thursday’s vote to establish procedures for the inquiry should not be nearly as controversial. A meaningful number of people have provided sufficient testimony to indicate that NOW is a good time to clarify the laws surrounding foreign involvement with American politics. Both Republicans and Democrats need crystal clarity about what is illegal vs. legal.
Testimony from several witnesses show that that the president enlisted surrogates within and outside his official administration, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr, to pressure Ukraine and other foreign governments to cooperate in supporting conspiracy theories concerning American politics.
It seems all Republicans in Congress feel that the President acted lawfully, while the American people have proved more open-minded—as new evidence is reported upon, support for impeachment has increased—and a parade of civil servants have spoken out. Republican Congress members need clarity for the sake of their party when, someday in the years to come, a Democratic president may conduct his or her affairs in a similar fashion. Lady Justice is our symbol for this process of a moral force in judicial systems. She appears with a blindfold, a balance, and a sword. She appears on statues in the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC. But is our justice system really blind? Are the scales truly balanced? Our entire judicial system is at stake here.
It does not seem right that the Senate Majority Leader would say that we will work “in total coordination with the White House counsel’s office and the people who are representing the president as well as the Senate.” There are provisions in the Constitution governing impeachment: that Senators are to act as impartial jurors during a Senate trial on whether to remove the President from office.
I hope that the Senate vote after the trial does not fall along party lines.
CON / Anthony Watts
Trump was hired by the American people to drain the swamp, and knock down the power of the elite career politicians – and he’s doing it. No wonder they want to impeach him.
As I watch the impeachment proceedings run like a railroading operation, where opinion, emotion, hearsay and second-hand or even third-hand knowledge get treated as “fact,” I can’t escape the conclusion that the entire impeachment circus is driven by two emotions: hate and fear.
They hate Trump because he usurped their plans to crown Hillary, they hate him because he doesn’t play the political games they used to, and they hate him because they consider him coarse and unstatesmanlike.
They fear him because he’s been very successful, and that success has translated into employment and prosperity. Just look at the most recent numbers: 266,000 jobs added last month and a 3.5% unemployment rate.
Former President Bill Clinton, a subject of impeachment himself due his lying about unsavory actions with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office, had this to say about it all in a CNN interview:
“My message would be, look, you got hired to do a job … You don’t get the days back you blow off. Every day is an opportunity to make something good happen.”
“And I would say, ‘I’ve got lawyers and staff people handling this impeachment inquiry, and they should just have at it … Meanwhile, I’m going to work for the American people. That’s what I would do.”
In essence, Clinton recognizes this impeachment circus is a political witch-hunt, and Trump shouldn’t waste any of his valuable time on it.
That’s sage advice.
But even if the vote in the House moves impeachment forward to the Senate, it isn’t likely to be successful.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham fired a warning shot across the bow to congressional Democrats that he and other Senate Republicans would not allow the Senate to be transformed “into a circus.”
Graham had this to say on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”:
“This whole Ukrainian stuff is a joke. They got the money. They got the meeting with the president. They didn’t investigate Joe Biden or Hunter Biden. There is no there there.
“We’re not going to turn the Senate into a circus … And I would tell Schiff, what you’re doing is very dangerous for the separation of powers here.”
To sum up; there’s no smoking gun, no quid pro quo, and nothing in testimony other than angst and opinion brought forth by the operatives of do-nothing Democrats. Hatred and fear converted into opinion in a House Judiciary hearing isn’t evidence.
It’s shameful behavior.
