Impeachment defense: Shout a lot
An old legal adage wisely instructs, “If you have the facts, argue the facts. If you have the law, argue the law. And, if you don’t have either, just shout a lot.”
It’s true in law practice, and even more evident in the House Intelligence Committee impeachment probe. Day One of the House Intelligence public hearings on the impeachment inquiry clearly demonstrated the application of that adage.
Wednesday’s televised hearing featured Bill Taylor, acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary for the State Department. Both men are lifelong public servants who have served under Republican and Democratic presidents. Taylor is a decorated Vietnam combat veteran and a West Point graduate.
Their expertise and sober, cautious testimony fit the moment and stood in stark contrast to the entirety of the hyperbolic hysteria of the Republican committee members’ attacks on the proceedings. They described the hearings as “a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign” and tossed out right-wing, deep state conspiracy theories playing straight into the wheelhouse of President Donald Trump’s base.
Democrats stuck to evidence from previous closed-door testimony and to the transcript of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which the president appears to leverage congressionally approved military aid to get Zelenskiy to dig up dirt on a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. They largely avoided any cutesy moments or dramatic oversteps.
Throughout the day, facts and law squared off against dramatic hysteria. Designated Republican attack dog Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan breathlessly and repeatedly made the baseless argument that “nothing ever happened.” He didn’t have the facts to counter the two witnesses’ testimony, so he resorted to empty shouting about hoax, conspiracy and media bias.
The impeachment theater will continue. Sadly, I think we can expect more of the same, hard facts battling against shouting and innuendo, and conspiracy theories galore.
It’s bound to get uglier as the process plays out, but it’s a vital part of our constitutional democracy: the part that protects us from blatant abuses of presidential power. — Gerald D. Skoning, Chicago