Day 978: Pelosi announces formal impeachment inquiry of Trump, GOP immediately trembles
The Democrats at long last announced an official impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. The latest transgression involving Trump allegedly pressuring Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden — or risk losing their aid — was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The Trump administration did everything possible to block oversight on the issue. They refused to release a transcript of the call between Trump and Ukraine’s president. Breaking the law, they also blocked the whistleblower complaint — that seems to encompass the phone call and more — from being provided to the House and Senate intelligence committees.
That left Democrats little choice but to act.
Trump and Republicans, for their part, have touted that impeachment would be a net-positive for them in the 2020 election. When Democrats called that bluff Tuesday, the GOP folded like a cheap suit in a matter of hours.
Trump immediately agreed to release a transcript of the call.
However, this is a mere half measure. Trump still did not agree to disclose the whistleblower report to either the House or Senate intelligence committees, as required by law.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has blocked all sorts of resolutions about Trump in the past. He has stopped election security measures and generally blocked any and all Democratic proposals from hitting the Senate floor.
Suddenly, McConnell was ready to bend over backwards and get his party in line about a resolution to get the whistleblower complaint to the appropriate committees.
And McConnell immediately backed as far away from Trump as possible on the Ukraine issue.
Trump, predictably, melted down.
Showing more nerves and even less bravado, Trump tried to negotiate his way out of impeachment by offering up something he’s legally bound to do anyway: turning over the whistleblower complaint.
Trump is also assuming that an impeachment inquiry would be limited just to the Ukraine scandal. However, once that door opens, a lot of swampy water could flood in.
Robert Mueller laid out a damning case for obstruction of justice in his report, that is sitting there for the House to pursue if they choose. Trump can be charged with with violating the emoluments clause or financial crimes. The House would be able to subpoena a trove of documents and Trump would have far less recourse in challenging them or stopping them.
Republicans are in the tricky spot of trying to defend Trump’s lawless behavior. For the most part, they’ve taken two paths.
They have either hidden.
Or they have embarrassed themselves on national TV.
An impeachment inquiry is ultimately a sad event for American democracy. That a president’s actions rise to the level of beginning procedures that, in theory, could force him out of office isn’t something to be celebrated.
But looking the other way and allowing the Constitution to be trampled on isn’t an option. Democrats have finally stepped up to lead the charge against someone who has routinely acted like he is above the law. How much Republicans obstruct the inquiry remains to be seen, but is largely moot. For the first time in nearly 1,000 days, Trump is being held accountable for corruption.
And he’s terrified.
978 days in, 484 to go
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