The impeachment drums are beating ever louder. Soon they will be hard to ignore.
As much as President Donald Trump wants to tell and re-tell his fanciful narrative — the Russia investigation was a hoax and, regardless, Vladimir Putin wanted Hillary Clinton to be president not The Donald — the fact does remain that evidence of obstruction of justice can be read between almost every line of volume 2 of the Mueller report.
That means the constitutional obligation of the House of Representatives — Republicans and Democrats — is to determine whether high crimes and misdemeanors were committed by our president and whether, as a result of his wrongdoing, he should be impeached.
It is hard to argue with the message of those drumbeats as they pound louder and louder into the national psyche. And it didn’t help any to quell the cries for impeachment action emanating from many Democrats and one Republican when special counsel Robert Mueller added to his 10 minutes of deserved fame last week by making it clear that the evidence of obstruction of justice that he uncovered — but didn’t and wouldn’t indict Trump because he didn’t believe he could — did not exonerate the president.
Read differently, the evidence couldn’t exonerate our president because it was evidence of obstruction. So anything President Trump says to the contrary is just, to use his words, a hoax and the rest of the world’s words — a lie.
At this point there could be some Trump supporters’ heads exploding because it sounds to them that I am making stuff up about the nature and extent of Trump’s wrongdoing. To them, I say change the channel. You will not learn anything about the facts if you are stuck on Fox. Pick any other channel or any other news source — as uncomfortable as that may be — and watch and listen with an open mind. Just because the man says it is a hoax and just because Fox News fails to mention the facts, that don’t mean it ain’t real!
So, back to this impeachment thing.
I try to be consistent about my position that it is late in the game for an impeachment proceeding that will run into the 2020 election cycle and, if successful, run into Mitch McConnell’s “just say no” chorus of Republican senators who must vote to convict if Trump is to be removed from office. I am just guessing now, but I don’t think the spine-challenged GOP will change its tune.
But that does bring up another possibility. Should the House move toward impeachment hearings and should the evidence be elicited as expected and as Mueller reports does exist, it will become clear to one and all that our president has a lot for which to answer. That could also turn a few Republican heads in the Senate — once they remove them from a dark place — and that could spell bad news for Trump.
Our president is a fighter and his inclination would be to go to the mat, go all the way, and go all in. But there is another scenario, and that is that our fearless leader could finally admit to himself that he likes his own plane, his own bed and his own lifestyle surrounded by sycophants and “yes” men — and women — more than he likes the fishbowl of public office. Even the presidency.
To avoid the potential impeachment and conviction and the stain on our country and on his own “huge and unbelievable name,” Trump could declare that he has made America great again and it is time for him to go home.
He could resign for the good of the country and the greatness of the Trump name.
And all would be good in America, again.
Except for one thing. Going into the 2020 elections, the United States of America would then be led by President Mike Pence!
Those drums I keep hearing are giving me a headache.