“Let’s Pretend it Never Happened”
...MAGA loyalists want to nullify Trump impeachments
My most recent post discussed the attempt of many on the radical right (I won’t impugn conservatives by calling these people “conservatives”) to whitewash history.
No sooner had I posted that entry did I hear that House Republicans are again on fire about an issue that must be keeping their constituents up at night – i.e., that their cult leader will forever be tarred with the shame of being twice-impeached.
According to the LA Times McCarthy is supporting efforts by two of Trump’s most fawning sycophants, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Elise Stefanik, who are initiating efforts to erase the charges against Trump from his impeachments in 2019 and 2021.
Extorting Ukraine. That’s right, they want to pretend that DJT never attempted to extort Ukraine’s President with a less-than-subtle request for the “favor” of launching an investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter on the made-up premise of the Bidens’ having entered into some shady deal with Ukrainian energy providers. Trump famously (or infamously) responded to the Ukrainian President’s statement that Ukraine was ready to buy more Javelin anti-tank missiles from the United States with a condition – “I would like you to do us a favor, though…” In other words, “if you want the missiles, launch the investigation” that would sully Biden, whom Trump correctly had deduced was his most dangerous electoral opponent.
The House prosecutors did a masterful presentation of the evidence, and witnesses like Fiona Hill, Marie Yovanovitch, Alexander Vindman, and even the comedic out-of-his-depth hotelier-turned-Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland made it clear that Trump had indeed abused power. Alas Mitt Romney was the only Republican in all of the Congress to vote either to impeach or convict Trump. senator to vote to convict. If you put this episode in the context of Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine less than a year-and-a-half later, Trump’s attempted extortion appears that much more egregious.
But the House Republicans want to erase this history…And that of…
Fomenting Insurrection as Part of a Multi-Pronged Plan to Steal and election and Hold Power. The January 6 committee made it crystal clear that not only did Trump lie about the fairness of the election and foment the violence, but that many around him were in on a broader attempt to override the vote and keep power. Months before the January 6 committee was formed, Liz Cheney – third in line in Republican House leadership at the time, called for impeachment:
"On January 6, 2021 a violent mob attacked the United States Capitol to obstruct the process of our democracy and stop the counting of presidential electoral votes…The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution. I will vote to impeach the President."
The MAGA gang in Congress wants to also erase Trump’s impeachment over those events, despite the ten Republican House members who were honest enough to vote for impeachment and seven Republican senators among the 57 who voted to convict. A healthy majority, but not the two-thirds required for conviction. Now, these radical House members want to erase this impeachment proceeding as well. In the aftermath of the events of January 6 McCarthy felt differently about Trump’s responsibility for Jan. 6, even as he offered a toady-like alternative “punishment” (censure) that would avoid impeachment.
Perhaps McCarthy and his MAGAmaniacs should consult with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said in a speech on the Senate floor: “There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day…The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.”
This was not a courageous act, as he said it shortly after voting against convicting Trump – on a weaselly interpretation that because Trump was already out of office he couldn’t be impeached…and not acknowledging that he had managed the Senate’s agenda to keep them out of session to prevent the Articles of Impeachment from being acted on sooner. Still, he said what he said.
And any House committee that takes up the Greene/Stefanik resolution to expunge should call Liz Cheney to testify so she could repeat what she told the entire country in wrapping up the Congressional hearings into January 6.
This GOP majority has no will or plans to address things that matter (immigration reform, infrastructure, voting rights, tax fairness). They just want to distract voters with fake “issues” and appeal to their yahoo fringe. They look dumber and more out of touch every day.