As expected, liberals spent most of the weekend screaming “IMPEACH!” over news that President Donald Trump had again done something that is likely an impeachable offense.
This time around it involves a phone call with the incoming Ukranian president, a whistleblower report regarding that phone call that a Trump appointee found to be of “urgent concern” and a blatant attempt by the president of the United States to get a foreign country to interfere in the 2020 election.
Will these libs ever just give it a rest?
Because he’s super good at doing crimes, Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, spent the weekend effectively acknowledging that they did, in fact, try to get a foreign power to launch an investigation into widely debunked allegations against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
That’s just good presidenting right there: You know there’s a debunked scandal against your potential opponent. You know facts are stupid. So you lean on a foreign country to reincarnate a dead scandal and then let that zombie scandal eat what’s left of your supporters’ brains.
What president wouldn’t do that, aside from all presidents who came before Trump?
To make this easy for the weak-minded lefties, I’m going to detail five iron-clad reasons Trump should not be impeached for committing — and admitting to committing — an impeachable offense.
The story behind Joe Biden’s son, Ukraine and Trump’s claims »
1) Trump is pulling a reverse-Nixon, and you can’t impeach a president who pulls a reverse-Nixon.
In 1973, President Richard Nixon famously denied involvement in the Watergate cover-up by saying, “I am not a crook!” Articles of impeachment would’ve been filed against Nixon had he remained in office.
But Trump’s reverse-Nixon has him effectively saying, “I am a crook!”
On Sunday, in perfectly normal and easy-to-understand English, the president spoke about the call in which he reportedly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to relaunch a closed investigation into Biden: “The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place, was largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son, creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.”
So there it is. Did the president of the United States ask the president of a foreign country that was eagerly awaiting $250 million in U.S. aid to target a political opponent? Yes. Is that a clear attempt by Trump to use the power of his office to benefit himself and put self-interest above the interest of the nation? Heck yeah! Is the administration breaking the law and engaging in a cover-up by keeping the whistleblower report relating to this matter from congressional oversight committees? Yeppers.
But because Trump up and admitted it all — successfully pulling off the never-before-achieved reverse-Nixon — there’s no way Congress can impeach. Look it up, it’s in the Constitution. Probably.
2) Trump is having fun committing impeachable offenses, and it would be mean to stop him now.
On Sunday, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted about the Ukraine scandal: “The president, per people close to him, is enjoying all this as it plays out.”
Clearly, Trump gets a real kick out of “triggering the libs” by mowing down the fundamental standards of our democracy and “faithfully executing the Office of President of the United States” only in the literal, murdering it sense.
Don’t take that away from him. Maybe he’s the self-proclaimed most successful president ever because he gets to commit impeachable offenses without consequence. Everyone deserves some joy in life.
3) You can’t impeach Trump for doing bad things because other people may also have done bad things, possibly.
The minute you bring up any alleged misdeed by Donald Trump, his supporters scream, “OH YEAH, WELL WHAT ABOUT THAT TIME (INSERT NAME OF EVIL LIBERAL) DID EXACTLY THE SAME THING?!?”
They will have no factual basis for their argument, but that doesn’t matter because they say it forcefully and refuse to admit they’re wrong. That, as any first-year law student will tell you, makes it true.
Biden: ‘Trump deserves to be investigated’ over Ukraine call »
For example, if I murder someone, I can just make up a story about how another person murdered someone and didn’t get charged, and that would insulate me from prosecution.
So did Trump violate his oath of office? Yes. But did Hillary Clinton violate her oath of office when she was president by allowing aliens to lure rural Americans to untoward sex parties in the basement of a pizza parlor? Absolutely.
Game. Set. Match.
4) Impeaching Trump would damage the Democrats’ carefully honed “We’re too afraid to impeach Trump” brand.
Congressional Democrats have spent the past three years not flexing their political muscles and pretending Trump is a normal political figure who can be contained by silly things like “rules” and “laws” and “basic common decency.”
Their inaction has emboldened Trump to think he can just get on the phone with a foreign leader and ask him to dig up dirt on a political opponent. Why would Democrats want to undo all the non-good they’ve done by suddenly cracking down on a lawless president? Totally off-brand.
5) Impeachment will rile up Trump’s base and divide the country, two things that are definitely not already happening.
If Democrats try to impeach President Trump, his supporters — known for their calm demeanor and openness to hearing both sides — might get angry. That would be terrible for Democrats’ chances of winning over people who think Trump — who according to the Washington Post’s fact-checker has told more than 12,000 false or misleading claims in less than 1,000 days — is a great truth-teller.
It also might divide the country by exposing the extent of Trump’s corruption and giving the truth a chance to win out.
Which would be terrible. For Donald Trump.
rhuppke@chicagotribune.com
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