Impeach The [Expletive Deleted]

Many of us fantasize that Special Counsel Mueller will soon wrap up his investigation and produce a wide-ranging and scathing report that will result in Trump's ignominious demise.  I suppose that's possible.  But it is far more likely that Mueller will accede to Justice Department policy not to indict a sitting president and will ultimately submit a narrowly-focused, restrained report that will encompass only some of Trump's misdeeds.  We can expect the administration to aggressively attempt to quash wide swaths of the report with broad claims of executive privilege that will have to be adjudicated in court, perhaps before Trump-appointed judges.  And there is also the question of whether the soon-to-be-appointed Attorney General, to whom the report will be submitted, will release it to the public and to Congress, or, as his confirmation testimony suggests, will disclose only a distilled and abbreviated version.

This means that the Democrat-controlled House cannot simply wait for Mueller to save the day.  Nor should it leave the task of investigating Trump's myriad scandals to a scattershot investigation by its various committees and subcommittees.  As Yoni Appelbaum thoughtfully and, to my mind, quite persuasively argues in his must-read article in The Atlantic, Congress must impeach Trump now:  "It must immediately open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, and bring the debate out of the court of public opinion and into Congress, where it belongs."  Indeed, "only by authorizing a dedicated impeachment inquiry can the House begin to assemble disparate allegations into a coherent picture, forcing lawmakers to consider both whether specific charges are true and whether the president’s abuses of his power justify his removal." Impeachment proceedings will reframe and refocus the narrative and make it harder for Trump to change the subject as he is so adept at doing. 

I previously agreed with the Democratic Establishment that it was premature and politically unwise to push for impeachment.  It seemed to make more sense to let Congress methodically exhaust all investigative avenues to prove Trump's malfeasance first.  But this recalcitrance was based on a misconception about impeachment.  What Appelbaum makes compellingly clear is that the impeachment process does not require proof  before going forward.  On the contrary, impeachment hearings are an appropriate vehicle for developing evidence to establish whether impeachable offenses have been committed.  As Appelbaum helpfully reminds us, Nixon's impeachment hearings began before discovery of the so-called smoking gun tape recording of Nixon authorizing the CIA to shut down the FBI investigation.  In other words, damning evidence against Nixon that led to his resignation was developed in the course of those hearings.

Here, it is without question that there is already probable cause to go forward with an impeachment inquiry on a myriad of issues that include profiting off of the presidency, colluding with foreign powers and obstructing justice.  And now we have a new report that Trump may have suborned perjury of his attorney regarding the extent of his efforts to cut a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow. As Trump hastens to destroy the country, what are we waiting for?

Once an impeachment inquiry is launched, a committee will subpoena documents, call witnesses and weigh the evidence before proposing specific articles of impeachment to be considered by the House. If the House votes to impeach, then the proceedings would move to the Senate where, after a trial, it would take two-thirds of the Senate to remove him.  While it is virtually impossible at this point to envision the Senate Republicans putting country over party, they should be compelled to stand up in the face of what is sure to be overwhelming evidence and explain to the American people why they continue to support this palpably unfit miscreant.  And even if the Senate fails to convict, Appelbaum convincingly contends that the process itself will impede Trump's ability to pursue his destructive agenda as well as cause him deep and lasting political damage.

The mid-term election has given Democrats an opportunity to safeguard the country.  They need to seize it.