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The Latest on the Impeachment of President Donald Trump

September 25, 2019

Good morning. We will probably be updating this post throughout the day, because the transcript is expected later this morning, and the news seems to break very quickly at the moment. But let's begin by making one thing clear: Nancy Pelosi has announced a formal impeachment inquiry. However, no articles of impeachment have been written, and no votes have been cast. Basically, Pelosi announced that she would be opening an investigation. It's like empaneling a grand jury, only the grand jury is made up of House congressional members.

This does not necessarily mean that Trump will be impeached. If the evidence does not warrant impeachment, the House Democrats may not vote for impeachment. If public opinion does not line up behind the Democrats, they may not vote for impeachment. If the evidence is as damning as it seems, public opinion is where the battle is most likely to be fought, and it's also where the Democrats are most likely to f**k it up. Trump, Giuliani, McConnell and other Republicans tend to be very good at downplaying their crimes and gaslighting the American people, and the media -- which has people like Giuliani and Kellyanne Conway knowing that they will lie and gaslight -- isn't a lot of help. To wit: The Mueller Report laid out a very convincing case for impeachment based on obstruction of justice. Trump and the Republicans managed to nullify that. Months after the Mueller Report was released, it's sadly become a non-issue with most Americans. The same thing could happen here if this gets dragged out and Trump downplays it, deflects, and cast aspersions on Biden and others. The Democrats need someone who can effectively wage that war over public opinion because if the public isn't behind impeachment, the House will let it drift away, which would be worse than impeaching the President and failing to convict in the Senate, because at least then, Democrats can blame the Republicans.

Meanwhile, some Republicans, at least, are going out there and defending the hell out of Trump, mostly by deflecting and redirecting the narrative toward Joe Biden (who, by the way, is no longer even leading in the polls either nationally or in Iowa and New Hampshire). For instance, Republican Senator John Kennedy spoke to Chuck Todd last night, and in a first, Chuck Todd actually managed to question Kennedy competently.

It's mostly been Rudy Giuliani, and it's mostly been on Fox News, and Rudy has mostly continued to stick his foot in his mouth and make all of this even worse, as Giuliani is prone to do. To wit:

Giuliani is not a government official. He is the personal lawyer for the President. He should not be privy to government documents, especially before Congress. Also, the personal lawyer for the President should not be taking orders from the State Department.

I should note, too, that is not just about one phone call between Trump and the President of Ukraine. It's also not about a single whistleblower report. Rudy Giuliani has spent months in Ukraine working the new President. From The Washington Post:

"Rudy -- he did all of this," one U.S. official said. "This s---show that we're in -- it's him injecting himself into the process."

Several officials traced their initial concerns about the path of U.S.-Ukrainian relations to news reports and interviews granted by Giuliani in which he began to espouse views and concerns that did not appear connected to U.S. priorities or policy.

The former New York mayor appears to have seen Zelensky, a political neophyte elected president of Ukraine in April and sworn in in May, as a potential ally on two political fronts: punishing those Giuliani suspected of playing a role in exposing the Ukraine-related corruption of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and delivering political ammunition against Biden.

Giuliani should probably be tried for goddamn treason. Also, I can't even begin to cover all of the conspiracy theories that Giuliani has floated in the last 48 hours, which includes suggesting that Senator Chris Murphy be impeached, and then this:

Is Giuliani a QAnon follower?

At any rate, we're waiting on the rough call transcript between Trump and Zelensky this morning, and apparently, Trump and Zelensky are scheduled to meet at the United Nations General Assembly this afternoon. Rudy downplayed the transcript, saying that it might "raise some eyebrows" but that's about it. 1) For Trump, "raise eyebrows" is a pretty harsh concession, and 2) we may not even get the full call. This is all about getting that whisteblower report, which Trump is apparently going to allow to be released.

In the meantime, for those of you who honestly think that Trump wants to be impeached so that he can use it to make political hay, that is not the case. Not only is Trump threatening to shut down all legislation during the impeachment process, he called Pelosi yesterday and tried to put the kibosh on this.

Updates forthcoming throughout the day.


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