Announcing today that the House will indeed vote Oct. 31 on moving ahead with mpeachment, 79-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tried to blunt 73-year-old President Donald Trump’s legal arguments that the House inquiry isn’t legitimate because no vote was taken. Promising a full House vote on Halloween, Pelosi gave Trump the trick-or-treat message about impeachment. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) hinted that he had all the testimony and depositions he needed to advance articles of impeachment against the 45th president. Trump hoped liquidating Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] leader Abu Barkr al-Badhdadi Oct. 27 was enough to divert attention away from inevitable impeachment proceedings against Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) alerted his GOP colleagues last week get ready for a trial.
Getting all her ducks lined up, Pelosi thinks the House has what they need to make their case against Trump, engaging in high crimes and misdemeanors over his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Democrats contend that Trump withheld Congressionally-approved funds to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on 76-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden and his 50-year-old son, Hunter. Getting the vote, Pelosi hopes to get the White House in contempt of Congress for ignoring subpoenas related to the impeachment inquiry. White House counsel Pat Ciplollone wrote Pelosi, saying the impeachment inquiry was not legitimate because the full House had not approved the action. Pelosi insists the White House made a “baseless claim that the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry lacks the necessary authorization for a valid impeachment proceeding.”
Pelosi contends that other precedents, including impeachments of President Richard Nixon in 1974 and former President Bill Clinton in 1998, House votes were conducted to complete a thorough investigation before proceeding to impeachment. Pelosi contends that over the last two decades the rules have changed giving House Committees the legal authority to conduct impeachment probes without House votes. Whatever the reasons Pelosi agreed to hold a full House vote, her closed-door inquiry still raises questions. When you consider that Pelosi or Schiff have not allowed any Republicans to cross-examine witnesses, or for that matter, present their own witnesses, the White House still considers the inquiry illegitimate. White House legal counsel believes Pelosi and Schiff have violated their Article 1 rights to harass or otherwise overstep boundaries with the Executive Branch.
Getting the full House vote won’t change too many minds in GOP circles, believing the House impeachment hearings are an extension of Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation. While it’s true the House has the legal authority to conduct impeachment hearings, it’s also true that the House has abused its Article 1 power. issuing subpoenas in rapid succession. House Democrats think they’re proven evidence of obstruction. Yet the White House has every right to resist subpoenas they think have crossed the line in Congressional authority, resisting cooperating with the impeachment probe. White House officials question the impeachment probe because former Special Counsel Robert Mueller essentially cleared Trump of Russian conspiracy in the 2016 election March 23. While Mueller said he could not exonerate Trump, that wasn’t the role of the Special Counsel.
Democrats argue that it’s a whole new ballgame once a “whistleblower’ came forward Sept. 25, accusing Trump of engaging in a quid pro quo with the Ukrainian president. Whatever was said in the July 25 phone call, it wasn’t as Democrats insist a straight quid quo pro. But even if it were, it still wouldn’t rise to high crimes and misdemeanors because the president has broad authority to inquire into corruption. When you consider Hunter Biden, due to his father’s connections, made over $150,000 a month, at a small natural gas company, it speaks volumes about political corruption. What’s most ironic is the fact that Obama put Biden in charge of Ukrainian corruption, when, in fact, he was engaging in it. Democrats and their media friends have ignored Joe’s involvement in Hunter’s corruption. Even Hunter admitted to the New York Times Oct. 15, his father landed him the Ukrainian job.
Pelosi and Schiff can pound their chests talking about collecting impeachable information on Trump. What they won’t tell you or admit to is that their case is built on pure speculation, even witness testimony with an obvious anti-Trump bias. Getting prosecution-type witnesses to rat out the president isn’t that difficult. What ‘s difficult is dealing with cross-examination, where witnesses can crack. Democrats rejected the Mueller Report once they learned March 23 he didn’t find Trump or his campaign criminally responsible. Since then, Democrats, led by Pelosi and Schiff, have looked under every rock to impeach Trump. When a “whistleblower” suddenly appeared Sept. 25, you knew the fix was in. Impeaching Trump was always Democrats campaign strategy heading into the 2020 presidential race. Pelosi put up token resistance until she realized they needed impeachment to beat Trump.
