Nostra
Diamond Member
- Oct 7, 2019
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Put a fork in impeachment, it's done.
Read: Jonathan Turley impeachment inquiry testimony
I would like to start, perhaps incongruously, with a statement of three irrelevantfacts. First, I am not a supporter of President Trump. I voted against him in 2016 and Ihave previously voted for Presidents Clinton and Obama. Second, I have been highlycritical of President Trump, his policies, and his rhetoric, in dozens of columns. Third, Ihave repeatedly criticized his raising of the investigation of the Hunter Biden matter withthe Ukrainian president. These points are not meant to curry favor or approval. Ratherthey are meant to drive home a simple point: one can oppose President Trump’s policiesor actions but still conclude that the current legal case for impeachment is not justwoefully inadequate, but in some respects, dangerous, as the basis for the impeachmentof an American president. To put it simply, I hold no brief for President Trump. My personal and political views of President Trump, however, are irrelevant to myimpeachment testimony, as they should be to your impeachment vote. Today, my onlyconcern is the integrity and coherence of the constitutional standard and process ofimpeachment. President Trump will not be our last president and what we leave in thewake of this scandal will shape our democracy for generations to come. I am concernedabout lowering impeachment standards to fit a paucity of evidence and an abundance ofanger. If the House proceeds solely on the Ukrainian allegations, this impeachment wouldstand out among modern impeachments as the shortest proceeding, with the thinnestevidentiary record, and the narrowest grounds ever used to impeach a president.
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Thatdoes not bode well for future presidents who are working in a country often sharply and,at times, bitterly divided
Read: Jonathan Turley impeachment inquiry testimony