Courtesy of the Bastrop Advertiser
Feb. 6, 2020
By Joni Ashbrook
As I watched the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, I pictured my 5-year-old self playing hide-and-seek with the neighborhood kids.
My brother loves to remind me that when I was hiding I clenched my eyes tight, apparently believing that if I couldn’t see anyone, they couldn’t see me.
Maybe the stress of constantly whitewashing Trump’s abhorrent behavior has caused GOP lawmakers to evoke a mind-altering trick resembling my childish beliefs. Is it possible they’ve convinced themselves that the public can’t see what they’re doing?
Republicans must use some trick to help them rationalize the array of moral gymnastics they’ve performed over the years to defend Trump, such as excusing his bragging that he sexually abused women on the Access Hollywood tape as simply “locker room talk.”
Or forgiving Trump for claiming there were “very fine people on both sides” after the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville where white supremacists chanted, “Jews will not replace us,” before killing a counter protester.
Does the GOP’s mind trick allow them to believe we don’t understand their feeble arguments against impeaching Trump?
After the Senate impeachment “trial,” some Republicans said they believed Trump did what he was accused of doing. Trump illegally withheld military funds to pressure the Ukrainian president to publicly announce investigations to benefit himself.
But that wasn’t enough for Republicans to impeach Trump, even though this misconduct affects our national security and is exactly the behavior our founders feared most.
Some current GOP lawmakers voted to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying about a sexual affair. They saw Clinton’s behavior as impeachment worthy, but absolved Trump of shaking down a vital ally at war with Russia using taxpayer dollars.
Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, begged to testify to the Senate. He claims Trump’s lead impeachment attorney, Pat Cipollone, was there when Trump asked Bolton to help in the Ukrainian shakedown.
Trump claims Bolton is lying. If only there was a mechanism to determine who’s telling the truth. Maybe some way to look at pertinent records or cross-examine witnesses, and hold them accountable if they lie.
Oh yeah, that’s called a trial with witnesses and documents. That’s exactly what Senate Republicans voted down. Republicans just created the first impeachment “trial” of a president or judge in American history without witnesses.
That’s got to be some doozy of a mind trick they played on themselves to believe we didn’t see that obvious cover-up.
I wonder if Republicans can conjure up a mind-altering state powerful enough to believe the public doesn’t see the damage they’ve done to the country with these actions.
In order to keep Trump’s scheme under wraps, Republicans relinquished Congress’ oversight and impeachment powers by staying mum while Trump claimed “absolute immunity” and thereby blocking all witnesses and documents.
Republicans basically removed the ability to hold presidents accountable. Since presidents can’t be indicted, impeachment is the only remedy for a corrupt one.
Trump says that Article 2 gives him the right to do whatever he wants. Apparently Republicans agree with that because they just made Trump, and all presidents after him, accountable to no one.
Open your eyes Republicans, we see you just created a king.
