Donald Trump’s Impeachment Threat
Donald
Trump and other embattled Republican candidates are resorting to a
particularly bizarre and dangerous tactic in the closing days of the
campaign — warning that they may well seek to impeach Hillary Clinton if
she wins, or, short of that, tie her up with endless investigations and
other delaying tactics.
Of
all the arguments advanced by the Trump forces, this has to be among
the most preposterous. In effect, what they’re saying is, Mrs. Clinton
won’t be able to govern, because we won’t let her. So don’t waste your
vote on her. Vote for us.
In
a rational world — you know, one that values comity and progress in the
national interest — this line of argument would be seen as incendiary
at worst and hopelessly wacky at best. Not so in Trumpland, where the
candidate himself warns (as he did in Miami on Wednesday) that a Clinton
victory would “create an unprecedented and protracted constitutional
crisis,” raising the specter that government would be severely hobbled
by congressional Republicans’ open-ended investigations and a
determination to impeach Mrs. Clinton. All this even if she was fairly
elected by a majority of American voters.
“Haven’t
we just been through a lot with the Clintons?” Mr. Trump asked. “The
work of government would grind to a halt if she were ever elected.”
The
tactic is a rejection of the nation’s need of a functioning government
and a tacit concession that Mr. Trump may be losing and that he can be
saved only by more scare tactics. Other Republican candidates in tight
races have picked up this theme. The G.O.P. phrase du jour is
“constitutional crisis,” depicting a hog-tied executive and a Republican
Congress obsessed with perpetuating their demonization of Mrs. Clinton.
Senator Richard Burr, campaigning for re-election in North Carolina,
took the Trump fantasy one step further, telling supporters: “Could she pardon herself? And the answer is yes.”
Rudy
Giuliani, one of Mr. Trump’s most zealous acolytes, echoed this cry to
carry the battle forward into a Clinton administration. “I guarantee you
in one year she’ll be impeached and indicted,” Mr. Giuliani promised
Iowa voters this week. “It’s just going to happen. We’re going to sort
of vote for a Watergate.”
As
nonsensical as this strategy appears, these threats could cause real
damage by encouraging Republicans in the next Congress to effectively
take the government hostage, exacting revenge by making sure that
nothing Mrs. Clinton proposes ever comes to pass. President Obama put it
well in underlining the dangers. “Right now, because a lot of them
think that Trump will lose, they’re already promising even more
unprecedented dysfunction in Washington,” he told North Carolina voters this week. “How does our democracy function like that?”
That
is not a question remotely of interest to Mr. Trump, in his kamikaze
politicking. Yet in recalling the tumultuous impeachment of President
Bill Clinton, Mr. Trump neglects to note that he was opposed to it,
writing in 2000 that he “got a chuckle out of all the moralists in
Congress and in the media.” Mr. Giuliani, before his servile devotion to
Mr. Trump, also opposed Mr. Clinton’s impeachment.
Beyond
simple hypocrisy, the Republicans’ impeachment threat demonstrates
their gathering disrespect for democracy. If they can’t gain control of
government fairly, they’ll simply undermine it. It is the clearest
warning yet that voters must deliver a firm rejection of the politics of
division that Mr. Trump represents.
No comments:
Post a Comment