When 66-year-old moderate Democrat Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-N.J.) decided Dec. 10 to reject his party’s impeachment of 73-year-old President Donald Trump it put the chink-in-the-armor of the Democrats’ impeachment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.) insisted their Republican colleagues were corruptly defending the president at their own peril. Pelosi, Schiff and Nadler have insisted, before any Senate trial, that Trump’s guilty as charged and that any Republican opposing impeachment has ignored the overwhelming evidence against Trump. Yet Democrat Van Drew told his party leadership he would not support the impeachment based on his review of the evidence. Two days later Dec. 15, Van Drew announced he’d be leaving the Democrat Party.
Before diving headlong into impeachment, Nadler insisted he must have at least one Republican to go alhead with impeachment before considering a formal inquiry. Last week, Nadler’s Judiciary Committee drafted two articles of impeachment, one involving “abuse of power” and the other involving “obstruction of Congress.” Van Drew’s rejection of his former party’s impeachment process indicates he finds no compelling evidence to impeach the president. With all his compelling evidence, Nadler could not find one Republican to join his impeachment bandwagon. For Pelosi, Schiff and Nadler to believe their impeachment case, they now have a former member of their caucus rejecting impeachment and abandoning the Democrat party. Van Drew left the Democrat Party because he knew his Republican-leaning New Jersey district would not reelect him in 2020.
Heading to trial in the Senate, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to commit to certain rules for the upcoming trial. Schumer wanted McConnell to allow him to subpoena Trump’s Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, former National Security Adviser John Bolton and Michael Duffey, associate director for National Security at Office of Management and Budget [OMB]. House Democrats and Schumer contend that Trump prevented the three from testifying during the fact-finding phase of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. Schumer hopes to get Mulvaney, Bolton and Duffey under oath to talk about Trump’s July 25 phone call with 40-eyar-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Pelosi, Schiff and Nadler insist Trump coerced Zelensky into digging up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, currently the front-running 2020 Democrat candidate.
Trump insists he was concerned about Ukrainian corruption when he asked Zelensky to get information on Joe’s 50-year-old son, Hunter, who held a $150,000 a month job on Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holding’s board. Joe and Hunter deny that they did anything wrong. Yet Hunter admitted Oct. 15 to ABC’s “Good Morning America” that ‘it was not the best idea’ to take the job.” Joe has gotten into several arguments at campaign stops with prospective voters asking about Hunter’s job on Burisma’s board. “You’re just like Trump,” Biden told one voter, refusing to “dignify” any question about Hunter’s work in Ukraine. Hunter admitted in the same interview Oct. 15 that he probably would not have gotten the Burisma job had his father not been Vice President. So when the Senate trial starts, Republicans will want to subpoena Joe and Hunter Biden.
Last Friday, Dec. 13, Drew met with Trump in the Oval Office, making his decision to switch parties official. Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.)and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) tried to reach out to Drew but got no response. Only days before the full House votes on impeachment, Van Drew reveals for all to see that he finds the Democrats’ impeachment case against Trump unworthy to support. Pelosi, Schiff and Nadler are scrambling now to blame Van Drew’s impeachment on Svengali Trump, not admitting that honest elected officials hold opposite views on impeachment. If Democrats’ case were so open-and-shut, so bulletproof, so unassailable, why would Van Drew defect? But, more importantly, why would not one Republican vote for impeachment? Pelosi, Schiff and Nadler have called all Republican elected officials corrupt.
Defecting to the GOP, Van Drew demonstrated for all to see before the full House impeachment vote this week that not all Democrats agree with the leadership. Van Drew raises more doubts about Democrats’ case, especially because not one Republican joined Democrats in supporting impeachment. When President Richard Nixon faced impeachment in 1973 and President Bill Clinton in 1998, there were members of the opposing parties that backed impeachment. Pelosi, Schiff and Nadler can’t make the argument that the impeachment case is so cut-and-dried a former member of the Democrat Party rejected the case. Nor can Democrats say they have one Republican backing their impeachment case against Trump. When you add it all up, Democrats case against Trump is a purely partisan attempt to smear him before the 2020 presidential election, having nothing to do with violating the Constitution.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
