This is the REAL conversation we need to have as a country.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 24, 2019
As horrific as this president is, he is a symptom of much deeper problems.
Even foreign influence plays on nat’l wounds that we refuse to address: income inequality, racism, corruption,a willingness to excuse bigotry. https://t.co/wtebX4Tfld
“Mueller’s theory of bringing cases has been basically beyond any doubt, as opposed to beyond reasonable doubt,” Ackerman told VICE News. “Mueller set a slam-dunk standard, and most prosecutors don’t set a slam-dunk standard. There’s nothing wrong with this, per se. But it means that the only way you can intelligently approach this issue is to see whatever the evidence was that he had. Without seeing the underlying evidence, you’re missing the whole boat.”
This supports the reports that Mueller was preparing a report to Congress on the theory that a) the President cannot be indicted for a crime, and b) Congress is empowered to determine what is a "high crime and misdemeanor," a standard not reviewable by a court of law (the President can't sue to get his job back following removal by impeachment).
And on that, I agree with David Frum:
Now the job returns to the place it has always belonged and never should have left: Congress. This is all the more the case since the elections of 2018 restored independence to that body. The 2016 election was altered by Putin’s intervention, and a finding that the Trump campaign only went along for the ride does not rehabilitate the democratic or patriotic legitimacy of the Trump presidency. Trump remains a president rejected by more Americans than those who voted for him, who holds his job because a foreign power violated American laws and sovereignty. It’s up to Congress to deal with this threat to American self-rule.
This entire matter is, and always has been, up to Congress. I never expected Mueller to indict Trump, much less present a report to Congress arguing Trump must be impeached and removed from office. But just as impeachment is not a judicial process (not subject to judicial review), it is entirely a political process. There's a reason no President has ever been removed by impeachment, and I doubt one ever will. The current Senate wouldn't remove Trump from office if he were filmed shooting someone to death at high noon on 5th Avenue in New York City. It's simply not going to happen. And if you want to give Trump a political opportunity on a silver platter, impeach him now. The threat to American self-rule needs to be addressed in ways other than simply removing the President. These are, ultimately, Constitutional issues, in the meaning of being about the fundamental nature of self-governance. Removing the sitting President won't get at those issues; it will make some people angry, some people happy, and prevent any real efforts to keep history from repeating itself. As AOC says, this isn't a simple matter of removal:
He can stay, he can go. He can be impeached, or voted out in 2020.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 24, 2019
But removing Trump will not remove the infrastructure of an entire party that embraced him; the dark money that funded him; the online radicalization that drummed his army; nor the racism he amplified+reanimated.
In order for us to heal as a nation, we ALL must pursue the hard work of addressing these root causes.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 24, 2019
It’s not as easy as voting. It means having uncomfortable moments convos w/ loved ones, w/ media, w/ those we disagree, and yes - within our own party, too.
It’s on all of us.
Did Robert Mueller insist on a "slam-dunk" standard when he was in a position to decide in whether or not to indict people in the past? I don't see that he did in the course of this investigation, why in this one case?
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of the trouble with this flows from the way the media covered the investigation which there was good reason to be skeptical of from the start, Rod Rosenstein's role in starting it to William Barr getting to spin it. This is something that should always have been the Congresses responsibility to investigate, the history of special councils in the investigation of presidents is too much of a hit or miss thing to continue with that.
I'm not thrilled with "special prosecutors," except Congress drops the ball as it suits them, and Trump's DOJ is rife with appearance of conflict issues (especially Barr's letter as an example).
ReplyDeleteI'm disgusted (again) with the media coverage, especially reports as to how this all affects the "horse race" in 2020. What I heard on NPR this morning reflected most of what I recall from Watergate: people paying attention to the details, not the screaming and the spin. But news reports are always about how the people will accept whatever the last, or most prominent, politician said. And when that doesn't happen, the narrative will insist it's happening, anyway.