Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday that her party will finally launch an “impeachment inquiry” into President Donald Trump — not over Russia collusion, but over the alleged “whistleblower” scandal that surfaced last week. NBC News reports that the House speaker accused Trump of betraying the United States by asking the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
“The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections,” she said. “Therefore, today I am announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry.”
Pelosi changes her mind on impeachment
Pelosi’s decision marks a stunning reversal after months of holding back against progressives demanding impeachment over the Russia hoax. The speaker had long counseled caution, saying that impeachment without proof would be “divisive” and incur the risk of a backlash against Democrats.
But then an anonymous “whistleblower” from the intelligence community raised the alarm of a “promise” that Trump made with a foreign leader. After the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, Trump admitted to having that conversation himself, but denied any quid pro quo, according to Politico.
But that wasn’t good enough for Dems, who have long been itching for an excuse to oust Trump. The whistleblower scandal brought fresh momentum to that movement as seven freshman Democrats in swing districts penned an op-ed backing the move and the number of Democrats favoring impeachment rose to more than 170 — over two-thirds of Pelosi’s caucus.
And it seems like Pelosi is feeling the pressure. Invoking the words of Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, and other luminaries from the founding of the Republic, Pelosi melodramatically accused Trump on Tuesday of violating his oath of office, according to Fox News, and directed six committees in the House to move forward with investigations “under the umbrella of an impeachment inquiry” — although the exact consequences of such a probe aren’t totally clear.
Republicans blast newest witch hunt
For his part, President Trump immediately tweeted that the inquiry was “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!” and “a total witch hunt.” Trump’s rebuke was echoed uniformly by Republicans, who roundly condemned Pelosi’s decision as a politically motivated “witch hunt” to take down President Trump, with one pretext or another.
Others complained that Pelosi had lowered the goalposts when she said earlier Tuesday that impeachment would be likely regardless of whether Trump’s phone transcript revealed a quid pro quo. In other words, with zero evidence, Democrats had already made up their minds — a fact Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) lamented on Tuesday.
“Washington Democrats have been searching for ways to reverse their 2016 election defeat since before President Trump was even inaugurated,” McConnell said in a statement. He went on:
The result has been a two-and-a-half-year impeachment parade in search of a rationale. When investigations by Special Counsel [Robert] Mueller and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence deflated their breathless accusations of a campaign conspiracy with Russia, Democrats have simply shifted to new arguments for their predetermined conclusion.
Indeed, it seems Pelosi has walked into a trap at the behest of the far left. Even if Democrats were to impeach Trump, removing him from office would be nigh impossible since Republicans control the Senate, which must vote in a two-thirds majority to oust the president. And if Trump were somehow removed from office, Mike Pence would become president.
The impeachment inquiry also risks exposing Democratic primary frontrunner Joe Biden, whose involvement with Ukraine is woven into the whistleblower scandal. Biden famously bragged in January 2018 about withholding $1 billion in loan guarantees when he was vice president to pressure Ukraine into firing a top prosecutor who was investigating a company with which his son, Hunter, was working.
But we all knew that from the beginning, Trump’s real “crime” was getting elected. Democrats have searched and searched for whatever bogus pretext they could find to discredit the 2016 election, and after three years of incessant screeching about Russia, all hope seemed to have been lost. Now, they’re finally taking the plunge — not on the basis of the Russian hoax, but a Ukranian one.
But why? For what political benefit? It’s not exactly clear. What is clear is that the Democrats are taking the country down a divisive path for no good reason — and it could cost them.
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