Acquitting 73-year-old President Donald Trump on two impeachment counts, one on abuse of power and the other on obstruction of Congress, the U.S. Senate checked the House’s Article 1 impeachment power. Voting 52 to 48 on Count One and 53 to 47 on Count Two, only Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Ut.) broke ranks on the abuse of power. House Democrats needed 20 Republicans to vote to convict, getting only one with Romney on Count One. Romney agonized over his decision but, in the end, his dislike of Trump got the better of him, agreeing with highly partisan Democrats that Trump committed an abuse of power. What’s most disturbing is that Romney ignored the White House case that both articles of impeachment were unconstitutional, regardless of what happened in Trump’s July 25, 2019 conversation with 40-year-old Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky, despite releasing the full transcript.
Mitt agreed with Democrats on Count One, not realizing that whatever “abuse of power,” it didn’t rise to high-crimes-and-misdemeanors, an impeachable offense. Mitt sided with Democrats wanting to hear former National Security Adviser John Bolton, whose book, “The Room Where It Happened,” is due out March 17. Romney knew that whatever was contained in Bolton’s book, it was not evidence but salacious gossip, something vigorously denied by Trump. Yet Romney ignored the White House’s powerful Constitutional case presented by 81-year-old emeritus Harvard Law Prof. Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz set the record straight that neither of the two House impeachment articles met the Constitution’s requirement for high-crimes-and-misdemeanors. Romney wanted to hear from Bolton knowing that his book was not evidence, only more tabloid hearsay.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told today’s story, tearing up Trump’s State-of-the-Union Speech on national TV. Pelosi’s frustrations boiled over knowing she lost her impeachment case against Trump, embarrassing her on the national stage. Pelosi lost credibility, knowing she never had the votes in the Senate to convict Trump. When she boasted Jan. 18 to HBO’s Bill Maher that Trump will “always be impeached,” she exposed her need for face-saving, knowing her impeachment quest would fail in the Senate. Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) lectured the Senate how if they didn’t vote for conviction, history would never forgive them, with overwhelming evidence against Trump. What Pelosi and Schiff couldn’t fathom was their case against Trump was not constitutional. House Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y), all five-foot-three of him, rewrote the Constitution.
For months before writing articles of impeachment Dec. 10, 2019 Schiff and Nadler accused Trump of “obstruction of justice,” something they extrapolated from the March 23, 2019 Final Special Counsel Mueller Report. When Nadler finally got down to brass tacks, he had no grounds for charging Trump with any known crime, instead settling for two vague articles of impeachment. Dershowitz made mincemeat out of Nadler’s impeachment articles, proving they didn’t meet the Constitutional grounds of high-crimes-and-misdemeanors. “The people will judge us for how well and faithfully we fulfilled our duty. The grave question of the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rise to the level of a “high crime and misdemeanor,’” Romeny said. Romney missed completely that the two impeachment articles did not meet the Constitution’s standard.
House Democrats proved that it was easy to abuse their Article 1 authority to weaponize the impeachment process. As retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said, Trump’s actions were ill-advised, but they weren’t impeachable. Pelosi, Schiff and Nadler proved that you could rewrite the Constitution to fabricate impeachable offenses when, in fact, they didn’t meet the Constitutional test. Romney bought hook, line and sinker, Democrats’ argument that having more witnesses and documents would have proved their case against Trump. But no matter how many witnesses or new documents, the case against Trump was never impeachable. Democrats forced ad square peg into a round hole, trying, but failing, to make their impeachment case. Former President Bill Clinton was “profoundly sorry” for lying under oath. But what’s Trump supposed to apologize for: Playing hardball with Zelensky?
Trump walks away from impeachment not only unscathed but with higher approval ratings hitting 49% in a recent Gallup Poll. Democrats walk away from impeachment embarrassed, looking like their political strategy bacfired. McConnell said it best today after the Senate acquitted Trump. Democrats looked foolish bringing a weak impeachment case to the U.S. Senate. Sen. Lindsey Graham wasn’t as kind to House managers. “By legitimizing this impeachment process,” Graham said. “What you have done is unleash the partisan forces of hell,” concerned that partisan impeachments will be the future. If there’s any lesson learned it’s that neither Congress nor the President can abuse their Constitutional authority. No matter how much elective officials despise an incumbent president, they must wait to vote him or her out of office in the next presidential election.
