The Impeachment of President Trump is DOA
Despite of all the evidence and hearings of the impeachment of Donald trump that clearly show an abuse of power, obstruction, at minimum, and extortion or bribery, at worst, we all know how this will end.
We can rant all we want about how Trump abused his power to force Ukraine to make a statement about investigating Biden (no real investigation) , Trump's future foe in the 2020 election. We can say it was a sort of bribe, that even the Ukrainian president alludes to because of the severe imbalance between them and that Ukraine was at war with Russia and Ukraine's need for Javelin antitank missiles that had already been approved. We can cite how Republican Nunes also went to Ukraine to stir up the investigation and collude with Ukraine in investigating the Bidens and how everything else swirling around this impeachment is a just procedure.
The one thing we cannot agree on is what should be the punishment? Is censure better than removal, since removing Trump simply is NOT going to happen in the Senate. Even experts cannot agree on whether the Ukrainian issue rises to impeachment levels. Of course, the Democrats think so, the Republicans do not. Like public opinion on this, it is about 50% for removal and 50% for no removal and pretty much divided down party lines.
The impeachment evidence is mostly indirect but convincing that Trump knew what he was doing and planned to circumvent official channels. Even though the White House has blocked all attempts to get direct evidence including testimony of key people during the impeachment, this is an obvious obstruction of justice. Trump also withheld $100 million from Lebanon for still secret reasons and was just recently released.
For many Americans, following the impeachment proceedings is mostly a tedious affair. This is NOT like the Nixon impeachment when Nixon's own tapes turned public and Republican opinion against him. But, we all know what the future holds.
- Trump will not be impeached in the Senate
- Trump will gain from the failure of impeachment
- Trump will claim again he did nothing wrong
- The election in 2020 will be more contentious than ever
- Trump could win the election
- If Trump wins the election, Trump may try to challenge the Constitution again by staying in power more than two terms (he has hinted he would like this)
- Should Trump win, the damage to America will be devastating and long lasting
- America may become a monarchy
