Democrats haven't made case for impeachment. They should censure Trump instead: Fleischer

Democrats could get Republican votes if they censured Trump for his attempts to link political investigations to Ukraine aid and an Oval Office visit.

Ari Fleischer
Opinion contributor


Over the course of the House impeachment hearings, the witnesses called by Democrats successfully made the case that the president and his top aides wanted Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Of course he did. He said so in his “perfect” July 25 phone call. He also, unwisely, publicly called on China to do the same. He once, also unwisely, publicly called on Russia to release Hillary Clinton’s emails if it had them.
The problem the Democrats have is that their impeachment hearings proved a point that almost everyone knows: Trump did it.
The Democrats, and much of the news media, say the hearings were full of bombshells and smoking guns. But the smoking guns were BBs and the bombshells were duds.
In football terms, Trump deserves a flag for a false start, or maybe unnecessary roughness. But the Democrats want to add up all the penalty flags Trump has earned in three years of his presidency, and they see the Ukrainian phone call as incontrovertible proof that the president should be thrown out of the game.
I, on the other hand, heard nothing that rises to the level of impeachment.

Drop impeachment, censure Trump

If the Democrats were smart, they would drop impeachment and instead vote to censure the president for his phone call and his attempts to link an investigation to the receipt of military assistance and/or an Oval Office visit. I suspect many Republicans would vote for it.
That would be a bipartisan outcome.
But the Democrats can’t stop themselves. Their hatred of the president, driven by their growing liberal base and shortage of conservative or moderate members, has led to this gigantic waste of time that will result in a one-party, partisan impeachment.
The Democrats fail to understand how anyone, especially those who have misgivings about the president, can’t support impeachment. They don’t accept the point of view that elections are the superior remedy to issues like this. We’re a republic if we can keep it, they like to say.
We’re also, as the Declaration of Independence states, a nation in which the government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.
The governed should decide what to do with President Trump, not 218 House members and 67 senators as called for under the Constitution. An election, not an impeachment, is the better way of keeping this republic.
As an occasional Trump critic and an occasional Trump supporter, I have a deal for the Democrats: I won’t try to persuade them to support the president if they will stop trying to persuade me to impeach and convict him.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It

Image
Here’s what Russia’s 2020 disinformation operations look like, according to two experts on social media and propaganda. By   DARREN LINVILL   &   PATRICK WARREN Internet trolls don’t troll. Not the professionals at least. Professional trolls don’t go on social media to antagonize liberals or belittle conservatives. They are not narrow minded, drunk or angry. They don’t lack basic English language skills. They certainly aren’t  “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds,”  as the president once put it. Your stereotypical trolls do exist on social media, but the amateurs aren’t a threat to Western democracy. Professional trolls, on the other hand, are the tip of the spear in the new digital, ideological battleground. To combat the threat they pose, we must first understand them — and take them seriously. MORE: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/russia-troll-2020-election-interference-twitter-916482/ Posted by Jamie B.
Read more

The Nightmare Scenario That Keeps Election Lawyers Up At Night -- And Could Hand Trump A Second Term

Image
The Nightmare Scenario That Keeps Election Lawyers Up At Night -- And Could Hand Trump A Second Term   (Photo: Photos: Getty Images) Americans will almost certainly go to bed on Nov. 3 without knowing who won the presidential election. Since millions of people will vote by mail, constraints on time and resources will slow ballot counting into potentially a weeks-long process. Voting patterns suggest it’s likely that President  Donald Trump  could end Election Day in the lead in certain key states, only to be overtaken by Democratic opponent  Joe Biden  when more votes are tallied.  This could create a nightmare scenario during the three months stretching from Election Day to the Jan. 20 inauguration: a battle on the state and congressional level over who is the legitimate winner. This could include Congress reconvening on Jan. 6, presided over by Vice President  Mike Pence , with no consensus over its potential role in choosing the next president. This is arguably the most likely of th
Read more

Philosophical Question #14 – Lifestyle Choices

Image
Here is an interesting question in my list of philosophical questions: 1.) Should governments have penalties for those who live unhealthy lifestyles? A list of unhealthy lifestyles would include things like smoking, drinking, illegal drugs, prostitution, and other “vice” type activities. I guess the “government penalties” would be referring to monetary punishments, withholding medical treatments (insurance companies would love that), possibly imposing/regulating very high (exorbitant) prices on things considered unhealthy in order to cut down on their use, and other possibilities. 2.) Or, would you say that living an unhealthy lifestyle, likely resulting in a LOT of eventual personal pain and suffering, should be punishment enough for unhealthy lifestyles? When people make bad choices in life, often in their youth where ignorance and immediate gratification takes them over,  3.) Should a society be obligated to help "fix" them, by way of tax money?   Is that part of
Read more