Seeing the future of antiTrump action

The antiTrumpeters, consumed by vitriol and cynical selfrighteousness, fail to see that President Trump is playing them like so many cracked pan lids: noisy but useless. The more noise he goads them to make, the less time they spend on things important to their constituents, and the stronger his base becomes.

Reality check: Impeachment. In the whole history of the country, only two presidents have been impeached, and both were acquitted by the Senate. With Republicans controlling the Senate, expect the same result with Trump. After the Mueller report finding no crimes, it is questionable whether the “high crimes and misdemeanors” requirement of the Constitution can even be agreed upon by a divided House led by a speaker who doesn’t want to impeach.

Reality check: Obstruction. Robert Mueller, the bipartisan choice for Special Counsel, with his army of assistants, after two years, 500 searches, 500 witnesses, many thousands of documents, millions of dollars, and a 448page report, has cleared Trump of collusion with Russia, and has found insufficient evidence of obstruction of justice, i.e., no crime, therefore no indictment, trial or conviction. Even if the House invents a crime, Attorney General William Barr will not prosecute.

If the Dems get past those enormous hurdles, conviction requires the unanimous verdict of 12 jurors, each of whom had no reasonable doubt about guilt. When Mueller, the Dems’ key witness and legal expert, testifies that there was insufficient evidence to show even a crime, much less guilt, every juror should have reasonable doubt. Trump is therefore found innocent. Any other result would be thrown out by the court as unsupported by the evidence. Senator Murphy takes a month of sick leave to cry and Senator Blumenthal’s face gets so red his hair catches fire.

Was the public pleased? We’ll see in November 2020. Jean B. Mauro Cheshire