High Crimes and Misdemeanors

High Crimes and Misdemeanors

 

 

Bill Clinton was impeached because he once lied in court under oath. But Trump swore on two bibles to uphold the Constitution during his entire four-year reign. Why isn’t the President under a moral obligation all of the time? Does firing the Director of the FBI, who is investigating you, your relatives and family, and your campaign and administration for collusion with our major world opponent, Russia, constitute a high crime or several of them?

 
Does proclaiming thirty some executive orders, without constitutional vetting, or ignoring such vetting, end up being high crimes or misdemeanors. Nixon only had a missing 18 minutes of tapes to being erased, yet now we have orders, of which many violate the constitution and interfere in people’s lives.

 
Trump has told over 400 lies in his first 100 days in office. Can’t those count as misdemeanors? I’m sure illegal immigrants, or applicants for refugee status undergoing extreme vetting, would not be kept in the country or allowed to immigrate telling 400 lies to the government in 100 days.

 

 

Unfortunately, under our totally Republican Congress, the House will not bring charges, nor the Senate try President Trump on them.

 
On the other hand, VP Mike Pence is a much smoother and saner candidate for election in 2020, should the Democrats favor an excellent candidate. Something for all Republicans to consider. “Dump Trump”, or “lock him up”?

 
Impeachment means that the House has drawn up the charges into the Article of Impeachment, and passed it. Then the Senate conducts the hearing, presided over by the Chief Justice. The hearing requires 51 Senators for a quorum, meaning 3 Republicans have to join the 48 Democrats, even if they can get all of them. Removal requires a two-thirds majority of the Senate. Sounds impossible at each stage.

 
What is much more likely is that Trump quits after one term, or sooner, since he is not getting the adoration that he craves. The media and press, Congress, and the Democrats are doing a successful job of denying his glory, helped enormously by Trump’s ability to mess things up himself.

 
Keeping up with the news: Trump fired Comey because he was showboating and a grandstander. Do we know anybody else in the administration that does that?

 

 

Trump made it clear that he decided to fire Comey, and just ordered Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to draft a letter and figure out why Comey should be fired.  It has been our legal tradition that the Department of Justice is independent of the President, and that Presidents don’t interfere with Justice.  This event just shows that Trump has appointed two Justice Department leaders who just follow Trump’s orders and are not independent at all.

 
Trump asked Comey to swear allegiance to him. I have long suspected that Trump did this of all of his appointees. That’s why he finds so few people to fill the 500 political appointees that the Senate must approve. That is why Attorney General Sessions bends over backward to please Trump.

 

 

There is a real irony for Trump to claim he is being plagued by the Russian issue. Who spent 5 years claiming and convincing people that President Obama was not born in Hawaii, and was a Muslim. Who spent years with Republicans trying to convince the public that there was a real issue about Clinton and Ben Ghazi, or about Clinton’s email server.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
This entry was posted in Clinton, Congress, Congressional Investigation, Donald Trump, FBI Director, Politics, Travel Ban, Trump Administration, White House. Bookmark the permalink.

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