Impeachment
March 13, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I wrote this past December about House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff’s acquisition of telephone records used in the committee’s “impeachment inquiry report” here (part 1), here (part 2), here (part 3), and here (part 4). In those posts I tried to infer the underlying facts from the “impeachment inquiry report.” We were nevertheless left hanging. How did Schiff do that? Kim Strassel follows up this week in her Wall Street
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February 29, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
As Scott noted this post, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled yesterday that that Article III of the Constitution forbids federal courts from resolving the dispute between the House of Representatives and the executive branch over whether former White House Counsel Don McGahn must comply with a subpoena to testify before the House. The decision is, of course, a victory for President Trump. It means
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February 10, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Two of the key witnesses in the Trump impeachment have been removed from their positions. Gordon Sondland is out as Ambassador to the European Union. Lt. Col Alexander Vindman has been reassigned from the National Security Council to the Pentagon. Democrats are crying foul, of course. But was it improper for Trump to take these personnel actions? Sondland’s case seems easy to me. Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the
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February 6, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Andrew Bolt is a terrific Australian columnist, commentator and television host. He has a show on Sky News called the Bolt Report; I appeared on Tuesday’s show immediately after President Trump’s State of the Union speech to convey my impressions on the evening, as well as the collapse of the Democrats’ impeachment drive, to Andrew’s Australian audience. My themes will be familiar to Power Line readers, but perhaps they shed
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February 6, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
If Mitt Romney voted his conscience yesterday when he favored convicting President Trump for “abuse of power,” then I respect his vote. An impeachment trial isn’t a team sport, or shouldn’t be. But I don’t believe Romney voted his conscience. I’m not sure he has one. Who is Mitt Romney? He was a center-right governor of Massachusetts. Then, he was a hard-right candidate for the Republican nomination. He was “pro-choice”
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February 6, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The New York Times is nothing if not predictable. In the age of Trump, it has become even more so. Having pioneered the “strange new respect” profile genre — i.e., the laudatory profiles of Republicans or conservatives who “get above their raisin'” to join the sanctified line of the Democratic Party — the Times owed Romney, and the Times has now delivered. Before we get to it, however, let us
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February 5, 2020 — John Hinderaker
To no one’s surprise, the Democrats’ impeachment drive fell flat in the Senate today. Both articles were decided on a purely party line vote, but for Mitt Romney, who switched sides on the first article (“abuse of power”). The only mild surprise is that no Democrats voted against removal. Doug Jones of Alabama, for one, can forget about any possibility of re-election. But with Jeff Sessions waiting in the wings,
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February 5, 2020 — Scott Johnson
No thanks to Mitt Romney, the Senate has just acquitted President Trump of the first article of impeachment brought against him by the House. Senator Romney announced this afternoon that he would join the Democrats to vote Trump guilty of the first article. He explained in an interview with Chris Wallace on FOX News that in his heart, he knows he’s right. In my heart, I know he’s a fool,
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February 4, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Tomorrow, the Senate will acquit President Trump. There’s a good chance that more Democrats will vote to acquit than Republicans will vote to convict. In fact, there’s a good chance that no Republican Senator will vote to convict. These outcomes would be a defeat for the Democrats. However, the impeachment will still be worth it for the Dems if it helps them in November — e.g., by enabling them to
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February 4, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Chief House impeachment manager has established himself as a contender for recognition as the most repulsive Democratic officeholder in the United States. The competition is intense, however, and I may be overlooking some obvious candidates for the crown. Schiff continues to chart the path upward in the Democratic Party. Schiff continued in his accustomed vein during closing arguments in the Senate impeachment trial yesterday. Tristan Justice isolated a notable thread
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February 3, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Among those who write for the Washington Post’s news pages, Philip Rucker is arguably the most vicious and dishonest when it comes to President Trump. Rucker’s latest anti-Trump article is called (in the paper edition) “Probable acquittal [of Trump] will have long-term effects.” The subtitle is “Senate lowering bar for presidents’ permissible conduct, historians say.” In the body of the article, Rucker claims that this view is supported by “numerous
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February 3, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Inside the sordid impeachment saga there must be a fat Robert Ludlum novel struggling to get out. In the video below from the Senate trial this past Thursday, for example, House impeachment manager Hakeem Jeffries quickly offered The Jeffries Distinction in response to a question posed by Senator Richard Burr. In The Jeffries Distinction he differentiated foreign meddling in the 2016 election undertaken by the Democrats from whatever Trump has
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February 3, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Senate Minority Leader Schumer seems to have thought he might get 50 votes for the Dems’ motion to add “witnesses” and “documents” to the case assembled by the House impeachment managers. Planning ahead, Schumer wondered what might happen in the event of a tie vote on the Dems’ motion. Schumer raised the issue by way of an “inquiry” to Chief Justice Roberts this past Friday, seeking to have Roberts commit
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February 2, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Michael Gerhardt is a law professor at the University of North Carolina. During the House impeachment hearings, Gerhardt embarrassed himself. He claimed that if what President Trump was accused of doing “is not impeachable, then nothing is.” That’s absurd. If the House hadn’t impeached Trump because of his Ukraine stunt, presidents could still be impeached for a multitude of offenses — e.g., selling state secrets to a foreign power or
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February 2, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
So now it’s John Bolton who, in the name of defending President Trump, is to be demonized by conservatives. Some conservatives will find the task an easy one. Bolton is a foreign policy/national security hawk. Many conservatives have become rather dovish. But many other conservatives have continued to admire, or at least respect, Bolton. We like his hard line stance against America’s worst enemies, especially Iran. Bolton has plenty of
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February 2, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Behind the impeachment of President Trump lies the “whistleblower” whose identity the mainstream media have carefully protected from disclosure. The Democrats have classified it Sensitive Compartmented Information. This must account for the media have blackout. At RealClearInvestigations, Paul Sperry (@paulsperry) has refused to abide by the blackout “rules.” He explored the back story in his deeply reported 4,000-word investigative account “Whistleblower Was Overheard in ’17 Discussing With Ally How to
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January 31, 2020 — John Hinderaker
With Lamar Alexander and Lisa Murkowski announcing that they will vote against calling witnesses, the Senate’s impeachment proceeding nears an end. I thought they might actually vote tonight and bring the farce to a merciful conclusion, but apparently that isn’t happening. The New York Post offers a bipartisan explanation, but I suspect that part of what is going on is that the Democrats hope to extend the process beyond President
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