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Earlier today, it was my position that impeachment should be brought against Trump even with the full knowledge that Senate Republicans wouldn't vote to convict and remove him from office. My argument was that it would put Republicans on the record showing that they don't care that the President is a criminal. I also argued that, essentially, not drafting articles of impeachment for that reason would be its own statement on our nation's values, and that that statement would be quite bad.
Well, perhaps two Republican Senators were reading my posts and thought, "Hey, why make Cardinal wait for impeachment before it gets to that? Let's go there now."
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1072244175544963073
At this point it's not a significant step to go from saying, "I don't care if he committed Federal Crimes because look at the economy" to "I don't care if he illegally conspired with a hostile foreign state because look at [insert Conservative goal here]."
The fact that we've already reached the point that Republican Senators are comfortable going on the record stating that rule of law is irrelevant represents the most recent and dramatic deterioration in the foundation of our Democracy. As bad as the nation's dialogue is (not least to say the quality of dialogue here on DP right now), what follows once our debates have shifted from arguing that crimes happened to arguing why crime is bad? If this kind of nihilism is successful in shaping the country's narrative, I won't be very optimistic about what happens next.
Well, perhaps two Republican Senators were reading my posts and thought, "Hey, why make Cardinal wait for impeachment before it gets to that? Let's go there now."
Hatch dismisses allegations of Trump crimes over hush money. Asked if he had any concerns, Hatch said: “The Democrats will do anything to hurt this president.” Told it was alleged by SDNY, Hatch told me: “Okay but I don’t care; all I can say is he’s doing a good job as President”
Hatch added this when asked if he was concerned about allegations. “No because I don’t think he was involved in crimes but even then, you know, you can make anything a crime under the current laws; if you want to you can blow it way out of proportion you can do a lot of things.”
Hatch also told me: “President Trump before he became president that’s another world. Since he’s become president this economy has charged ahead. ... And I think we ought to judge him on that basis other than trying to drum up things from the past that may or may not be true.”
Grassley, the Senate Judiciary chairman, similarly dismisses the federal prosecutors’ argument: “They based it on what a liar says, so it hurts the credibility of it.”
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1072244175544963073
At this point it's not a significant step to go from saying, "I don't care if he committed Federal Crimes because look at the economy" to "I don't care if he illegally conspired with a hostile foreign state because look at [insert Conservative goal here]."
The fact that we've already reached the point that Republican Senators are comfortable going on the record stating that rule of law is irrelevant represents the most recent and dramatic deterioration in the foundation of our Democracy. As bad as the nation's dialogue is (not least to say the quality of dialogue here on DP right now), what follows once our debates have shifted from arguing that crimes happened to arguing why crime is bad? If this kind of nihilism is successful in shaping the country's narrative, I won't be very optimistic about what happens next.