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What we are witnessing in the bubble of Washington, D.C. – that place where reality has been permanently suspended—has gone from raw politics to a total embarrassment. The 116th Congress is officially a clown show.
It is one thing for these court jesters who call themselves politicians to subject the American people to this high school cafeteria food fight but a totally different thing to do this with China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea watching.
First and most importantly, the previously mentioned countries are no doubt exploiting this Congressional sophomoric behavior. Second, it weakens President Trump’s position in dealing with not-so-friendly nations as they have to believe that Trump is preoccupied trying to save his presidency and is in no position to get tough with them in foreign relations. They’re probably figuring they can wait him out for the next two years.
If the Democrats think that by feeding their rabid base the red meat of impeachment talk, returning to Trump’s tax returns (stop it, man, you’re boring me) and making William Barr the new boogeyman has the rest of America riveted to their seats and watching this with great interest, I have bad news for them. Most Americans aren’t and even more do not care about this. If the Democrats are trying to make the case to the American people that Trump should be impeached, after two years to convince us they are failing miserably. They should take a page from one of their creations during the GOP impeachment of Bill Clinton. The difference is that Clinton committed a real crime. He perjured himself—he lied under oath. That is a felony. His law license was suspended over it. That’s not political. Now Democrats find themselves in a position for payback for impeaching Clinton. This is purely partisan political warfare.
The Democrats’ grassroots had an answer to counter-impeachment of Bill Clinton. MoveOn.org was created. Their goal was to oppose the Republican-led effort to impeach Clinton by gathering as many signatories as they could to send a message to Congress. That message was to stop the impeachment stuff and “move on” to critical issues facing the country. The GOP is missing their own MoveOn moment with a leader who can organize it, give it energy and rally supporters to send a loud and clear message to Congress to knock off their attempts to undo the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Get over it. In a speech from the well of the Senate, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell tried to fire up support, but let’s be clear, Mitch is hardly an inspiring figure. If I wanted someone to come in and deliver a fiery pregame locker room speech to my team before a big game to energize them, suffice it to say I would not dial-up Mitch McConnell. However, if I needed someone to help put a routine crying baby to sleep, Mitch would be my first call. The guy is a cure for insomnia.
There is no legal or constitutional basis for Democrats’ attempts to undo the 2016 election. The Mueller investigation is a dead horse they are dragging around. They do not have the wherewithal, however, to dismount.
President Trump didn’t obstruct the Mueller investigation. He was right in defending his administration from what was a real 21st-century silent coup attempt. The naming of a special counsel was a perversion of our justice system. It was weaponized to go after a person whose political views differed from their own as they felt that Trump threatened the status quo in Washington, D.C. Instead of using the electoral process to make a change, Democrats turned policy disputes into a criminal act. The Mueller witch-hunt was charged with determining how much Russia may have tried to interfere with an American election, not whether Trump colluded with Putin to steal the election from Hillary Clinton. It morphed into that as it went on. This even after then-President Barack Obama said Russia could not change the election and that it wasn’t possible because of the way elections are run state by state. That turned into an attempt to frame Trump for a crime he did not commit. The hope of Democrats was for this witch hunt to provide the constitutional justification and evidence to impeach the president. When that failed, they doubled down and are now hell-bent on impeaching Trump come hell or high water.
Congress certainly has the constitutional authority to impeach the President. It doesn’t take a scholar to know that the Founders never intended for that authority to be used to undo the will of the American people through the electoral process in a raw politically partisan maneuver.
The Democrats have outmaneuvered the GOP on this one. Republicans foolishly thought that the Democrats would wave the white flag on 2016. While Republicans were taking a victory lap after Mueller’s report found no evidence of collusion, the Democrats, like carpenter ants after the exterminator comes didn’t move on, they moved over. They started building a new nest by tar and feathering Attorney General William Barr and demanding Trump’s tax returns. They were then given a gift. The Senate GOP led Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena for Donald Trump Jr. to testify again to, “clear some things up.” Clear what up? Memo to Senate GOP. There is no evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with the Russians. Why are you rescuing the Democrats from their epic fail to remove Trump? You have just resuscitated their collusion argument.
As a conservative, I try to help Republicans wherever and whenever I can. However, sometimes it is better to just, as the song says, send in the clowns.
Sheriff David Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of AmericasSheriff LLC, Senior Advisor for America First, author of the book Cop Under Fire: Beyond Hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America. To learn more visit www.americassheriff.com