“The biggest political scandal in American history”
Yesterday, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei declared the avalanche of crimes, corruption, and cover-ups by Donald Trump and his associates “The biggest political scandal in American history” and quoted historian Jon Meacham saying we’re in a “national crisis.”
Recent days have brought several new statements from conservative columnists, legal experts, and members of Congress that Trump’s impeachment is justified.
Conservative columnist Bret Stephens:
“This is one of the worst scandals of this presidency. Trump directly intervened with the Justice Department to pursue his personal vendetta against CNN. He lied about it. DOJ officials likely lied too. … if Obama or HRC had done this, House Republicans would be demanding impeachment.”
Conservative columnist Max Boot:
“This further supports your argument that it’s time to launch an impeachment investigation. This is evidence of the president attempting to politicize the Justice Dept as part of his vendetta against CNN.”
Conservative attorney George Conway:
“If proven, such an attempt to use presidential authority to seek retribution for the exercise of First Amendment rights would unquestionably be grounds for impeachment.”
“Some argue that the push for impeachment is ahead of schedule. A more potent argument could be made that it’s way behind.”
Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein:
“Under the Constitution, use of presidential authority to punish political enemies is an impeachable offense. That conclusion emerges from the ratification debates, and it can be traced to the Revolutionary War.”
Rep. Maxine Waters (CA), former member of House Judiciary Committee and member of member of the Steering & Policy Committee of the Democratic caucus: For the faint of heart, who’ve been waiting for every “t” to be crossed and every “i” to be dotted, now is the time to demonstrate your patriotism. Support impeachment!
“I think there is a sense of urgency … I think every single colleague of mine think there is impeachable offenses … We may disagree on the pace. We may disagree that we have to wait for certain hearings … But at the same time I think they know the dangers of allowing President Trump to continue to violate our United States Constitution.”
“Impeachment is THE constitutional option for an unfit President.”
“It had once seemed surreal to imagine Donald Trump indicted, arrested, tried and convicted. That is no longer the case; one now has to strain to imagine that at some point federal prosecutors will not take the mounting evidence of Trump’s criminality and do what federal prosecutors do.
“Congress, however, faces a different issue, one that grows more pressing every week: how and when to exercise its constitutional responsibility for impeaching a president who has committed high crimes or misdemeanors. The Constitution does not require that those crimes or misdemeanors occur while in office, though there is already far more than probable cause to conclude that Trump committed multiple campaign-finance-related felonies while in office, and the evidence that he has committed obstruction of justice while president has grown more and more apparent. The unhappy question that looms ever larger over Congress and the American people is: Can the nation afford to have a criminal in the Oval Office, and should America be subjected to this?
“[…] it seems inevitable that the House will have to initiate impeachment proceedings, not merely because they are warranted, but also because it is its constitutional duty to do so.”
And members of Congress who don’t yet support impeachment increasingly recognize Trump has likely broken the law and impeachment could be justified:
Rep. Dan Kildee (MI), Chief Deputy Majority Whip:
“Rep. Dan Kildee says on @MSNBC that it’s possible that Trump’s hush money payments to women and his conflicts with his businesses could be enough to take steps towards impeachment.
“’I don’t think it has to be Russia-related collusion in order for us to take a step.’”
Rep. Ro Khanna, member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and Assistant Whip:
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told the Powerhouse Politics Podcast on Wednesday that President Donald Trump “violated probably 10 different laws in many ways.”
Finally, a new Monmouth poll poll shows that support for impeachment has grown substantially since November. Most strikingly, among independents, support for impeachment has shot up 14 points to 40% in the past four months. The poll also found that a strong majority of Americans (54%) believe Trump reimbursed Cohen for paying off Stormy Daniels, a potential violation of federal campaign finance law.
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