Impeaching Trump is the only option
We all just witnessed America’s symbol of democracy to theworld become a crime scene.
Americans watched in horror a week ago as the heart of our government, a beacon of democracy around the world, became a crime scene.
President Donald Trump’s prodding of a volatile crowd to march on Congress and “stop the steal” of a victory that was never his was the climax of his weeks-long effort to overturn an election his own Department of Homeland Security called “the most secure in American history.”
The president’s actions amounted to sedition. In the days that followed, he took no responsibility for Wednesday’s deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, which killed five, including a police officer, and on Tuesday he told reporters in Texas that his speech before the march was “totally appropriate.”
“Everybody to a ‘T’ thought it was totally appropriate,” he said.
Exit delusion. Enter reality, where support grew for Trump’s impeachment, even drawing the endorsement of the No. 3 Republican in the House: Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” Cheney said in a statement, which accused Trump of summoning the mob and lighting the “flame of this attack.”
“Everything that followed was his doing,” Cheney wrote, including Trump’s refusal to intervene as soon as his supporters became violent.
She’s right. Trump made a choice: to put his own political ambitions before his country.
Now we have a choice as Americans: hold our breath and hope for the best until Inauguration Day. Or take action to protect the country against the threat Trump poses now, and in the future.
We choose action. Immediate removal and impeachment are the only responses.
Last week, having concluded that Trump poses an ongoing threat to America’s safety and democracy, this editorial board called on Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s Cabinet to consider invoking the 25th Amendment to strip the president of his powers.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has demanded they remove Trump, or else she’ll move forward with a second impeachment of the president as soon as Wednesday evening.
It’s a grave step, and unprecedented, but Pelosi has grasped that failing to act would be a dereliction of duty, a breach of the rule of law and an invitation to more violence in service to sedition and insurrection. It’s not just the results of this election but of all those to come and the crucial democratic doctrine of the peaceful transfer of power that are at stake.
Late Tuesday, news broke that Pence, in a letter to Pelosi, rejected her call for the 25th Amendment, saying it would set a dangerous precedent.
Given that development, the U.S. House of Representatives should move forward with a vote on an article of impeachment and the U.S. Senate must be prepared to hold a speedy trial if charges are forwarded. Late Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has privately expressed relief that the House is moving forward with impeachment, believing that Trump has committed impeachable offenses.
Some have raised fears that impeachment could further divide America, and perhaps prompt more violence. We believe those fears are overshadowed by the fact that real and serious crimes were committed. Suggestions that Trump’s misdeeds should be put aside because he will be out of office in a week miss the point that a society built on laws cannot survive if justice is meted out only when it is convenient.
Trump’s culpability in sparking the riot that forced members of Congress, their staffs and others to shelter in fear for their lives is obvious.
“We will not take it anymore,” Trump told a crowd of thousands at the “Save America March” just before he urged them to go to the Capitol to interrupt Congress as it met to accept the election results favoring President-elect Joe Biden.
Although he said the protesters should “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” the bulk of his speech was filled with vitriol and bogus references to voting fraud and theft and exhortations to fight without backing down.
“We fight like hell,” he told them, “and if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Before urging them toward Capitol Hill, he warned: “you’ll never take back our country with weakness.”
Those words are even worse in the context of Trump’s years-long attacks on the electoral system, Congress, the media, his own Justice Department and political institutions.
A man who prides himself on his ability to “read a crowd” had to know the reaction he was prompting.
Members of his Cabinet, loyal supporters in Congress and longtime business partners have criticized or cut ties with him over his actions leading up to the Capitol riot. Only the members of the sycophant caucus and those cynically hoping to co-opt his voter base in 2024 are still willing to publicly defend him.
An impeachment vote and trial will give Republicans a chance to show how much they really care about the rule of law, the Constitution and democracy beyond their campaign-trail rhetoric and political ads.
There really is no choice. Congress must hold the president accountable. If he is not removed or does not resign, impeachment is the only option.