President Trump Mused About His Own Impeachment on Fox News
In a taped interview with Fox & Friends that aired Thursday morning, President Trump mused about his own impeachment. “I guess it says something like ‘high crimes’ and all,” Trump said, showing a typically deep understanding of the Constitution. “I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who’s done a great job.” Trump added, with a bit of menace, that attempting to remove him from office would tank the economy: “If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor.”
“I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who’s done a great job,” President Trump talks impeachment in new interview. pic.twitter.com/bs46UnEwmh
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 23, 2018
The president of the United States has made his position on impeachment clear. It’s time that Democratic candidates for office do the same.
The 2018 election is not normal. The foundation of our democracy is at risk. The Republican Party has not just become corrupt; it has become lawless. The president is now an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme involving hush money to influence his own election. His former campaign manager and deputy campaign manager are convicted felons. His first two congressional endorsers are under indictment.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s work is far from finished, but we know that Trump’s campaign sought to collude with a Russian attack on our democracy. Trump has lied endlessly to the American people; he’s profited from the office of the presidency and he’s undermined the constitution like a strongman — bashing the free press as the “enemy of the people.” We have no idea what wretchedness transpired during his summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
It’s time to recognize that the 2018 midterms are not about what Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders wished for. It’s not about routine politics or policy. It’s not about how the House GOP’s Obamacare vote threatened people with preexisting conditions. It’s not about how the Trump tax bill is raising taxes on millions of homeowners who find their state-and-local tax deduction capped. It’s certainly not about the merits of the Democratic party’s small-ball “Better Deal” platform.
The 2018 election is now about standing up for the rule of law. It’s about replacing a feckless Republican majority, comprised of preening faux patriots who haven’t got the mettle to stand up to a Twitter tyrant. This is the contrast election that has been thrust upon Democrats. And it’s time to embrace it. First, because there’s no avoiding it. And second because Democrats can — and must — win the argument.
No president, and no party, is above the law. The Constitution tasks congress with the most difficult duty in law enforcement: policing the president. Impeachment isn’t “playing politics,” it’s solemn duty in defense of our nation. Trump has committed impeachable offenses; Mueller will likely expose more. And Congress needs to hold him to account. Because once lawlessness goes unchecked, lawlessness is permitted. And that, my fellow Americans, is a dark fucking path.
Impeachment is about keeping faith with our founding principles. A voter who can’t trust a politician to stand up for the Constitution probably won’t trust that person to have their back on an infrastructure- or immigration-reform bill. Democratic candidates, and patriots everywhere, need to say “impeachment” out loud. Today and everyday until November — and beyond.