Last chance to make impeachment case
Will public witnesses change minds on Trump?
Like Saratoga in 1777 or Gettysburg in 1863, the Donald Trump impeachment is shaping up as a decisive battle. In this case, the conflict isn’t the Revolutionary War or the Civil War. It’s the early 21st century Information War. Will facts and evidence prevail, or will they vanish into the gale-force storm of dust, fog, lies and distraction that the president’s allies are kicking up?
To insist there is no problem, as Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and many others do, is to deny reality to a degree matched only by the commander in chief. It is the epitome of disrespect for America, its people and its Constitution.
The closed-door impeachment testimony released so far is a little shop of horrors, except it’s the size of a department store. Every revelation is a nightmare. A president likely cultivated for years as a Russian asset? Check. Death threats? Check. Amateur hour? Check. A “mishmash of conspiracy theories”? Check. Anti-Semitism? Check. Fake news? Check. And those are all from one witness, former National Security Council Senior Director Fiona Hill.
Let’s dispatch with the supposed noninvolvement of the president. He himself released the call transcript in which Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned military aid appropriated by Congress and Trump immediately responded with his infamous “I would like you to do us a favor though.” Then the president asked for investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden (potential 2020 rival) and Ukraine’s supposed role in the 2016 election (debunked conspiracy theory that would have been good for Russia).
If Trump’s own words aren’t enough, take it from his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani (“I don’t do anything that involves my client without speaking with my client”). Or three witnesses who testified that on a July 18 call, an Office of Management and Budget employee said the military aid hold came “from” and “at the direction of” the president.
No Democratic coup
Senate Republicans might not recognize this quite yet, but House Democrats are handing them a prime opportunity to divorce themselves, if not their party, from this man. And they’ll have an excellent argument that it would not overturn the 2016 election.
There would be no slowing of conservative judicial nominees under a President Mike Pence, no letup in plans to cut taxes for the wealthy. There would be continued attempts to outlaw abortion and support for “religious freedom” that elevates some people’s rights over those of others.
No, this would not be a Democratic coup. It would, however, seem like that to die-hard disrupters who not only wouldn’t care if Trump shot someone on Fifth Avenue, they might admire him more. The whole point is to get away with something, whether it’s selfdealing on a major international conference at his own Florida resort or running a shadow foreign policy that withholds military aid and White House meetings if a new Ukrainian president, under siege from Russia, does not meet Trump’s requests for spurious political probes that would help ... Trump.
A recent Monmouth University poll found there is nothing Trump could do to turn off 62% of his supporters. But that is 62% of 43% — which amounts to only about 27%. If this poll approximates the country even roughly, millions of Trump voters could be open to new information.
These are not the disrupters who want to trigger the libs. Maybe they thought Trump wouldn’t be cruel to immigrants, or would only deport “bad hombres.” Maybe they believed him when he promised health “insurance for everybody” (instead of trying to kill the law that guarantees insurance for people with preexisting conditions).
Circus or pivotal moment?
Maybe they are disturbed that he is destroying overseas markets for farmers, sinking us deeper into debt, failing to save the coal industry, failing to keep auto plants and other manufacturing alive, and failing “Dreamers” — the young immigrants brought here illegally as kids whom he once said he loved and would “show great heart” toward.
In other words, breaking the promises that made him seem like a plausible choice.
Democrats aren’t known for great theater, as they have shown in hearings they’ve held on Trump’s corruption and abuses of power, including the Mueller report. In House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, they have a former prosecutor who dealt with Russian spy craft before coming to Congress. He knows how to build a case. But the Republicans on the committee have made clear their focus will be deflecting, attacking and provoking.
Will these autumn hearings devolve into a chaotic circus or emerge as pivotal? The latter is not out of the question. All of us will finally be able to hear, see and evaluate some of the many national security and diplomatic professionals appalled and worried by what they have seen. It is the Democrats’ last best chance to get through to busy Americans and convince most of them that they are hearing the facts and the truth.
Jill Lawrence is commentary editor of USA TODAY and author of “The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock.” WANT TO COMMENT? Have Your Say at letters@usatoday.com, @usatodayopinion on Twitter and facbook.com/usatodayopinion. Comments are edited for length and clarity. Content submitted to USA TODAY may appear in print, digital or other forms. For letters, include name, address and phone number. Letters may be mailed to 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA, 22108.