There are any number of reasons to consider Donald Trump unfit for office. Even many of those who support him, either affirmatively or as the least of available evils, surely recognize his massive character and other flaws. He’s probably the first president in history who strives to be polarizing and divisive. One of Trump’s negative traits is his knack for bringing out the worst in his opponents and reducing them to his level. Many never accepted his election and have succumbed to the urge to end his presidency by any means necessary. His recent impeachment by the House of Representatives is an example.
Trump’s impeachment was a wholly partisan exercise in the House that is destined to end with a partisan acquittal in the Senate, if it gets that far. After asserting an urgent need to remove Trump from office that couldn’t await the 2020 election, House Democrats are now in no hurry for a Senate trial. They are apparently stalling in order to pressure the Senate to call witnesses and develop additional evidence they chose not to pursue. They may even prefer to delay a Senate trial indefinitely. These tactics reinforce the partisan nature of the impeachment and signal Democrats’ lack of seriousness about it.
One likely reason this effort attracted zero bipartisan support and failed to generate broad public approval is the weakness of the case for impeachment. It rests on very thin evidence and dubious legal grounds. The two most serious charges in the impeachment narrative—that Trump demanded Ukrainian President Zelensky “dig up” or even manufacture “dirt” on Joe Biden and that he conditioned military aid for Ukraine on Zelensky’s agreement to do so—are unsupported by the evidence. The principal legal ground—that Trump abused his power by subordinating the national interest to his personal political interests—is a vague and elastic standard that could apply any time a president is accused of placing politics above the accusers’ version of good public policy.
The impeachment’s political impact on the 2020 election is hard to predict. Whatever bearing the information it developed has on Trump’s fitness for office will be left, appropriately, for the voters to decide. What’s easier to predict is that this impeachment will do further and perhaps lasting damage to our already fractured national politics. In the short term, it’s sure to drive political polarization and public cynicism above their already high levels. In the longer term, there’s a real danger that impeachment will become the normal recourse in the future for addressing policy disputes when different parties control the presidency and the House. Indeed, if Trump is reelected and Democrats retain the House, there’s a good chance they’ll find a reason to impeach him again.
Trump brings many problems on himself through his impulsive, reckless and selfish behavior. Members of Congress of both parties also deserve much blame as they regularly engage in either knee-jerk support or opposition concerning all things Trump. Other institutions that are important to the health of our democracy are complicit as well.
Many in the media have foregone journalistic principles of objectivity when it comes to Trump. After spending more than two futile years flogging evidence-free conspiracy theories about Trump and Russian election interference, they jumped enthusiastically to the Ukraine impeachment bandwagon. Throughout the impeachment process, reporters and opinion writers have behaved like group-thinking cheerleaders, providing an uncritical echo chamber for any and all allegations against Trump. In typical fashion, a December 14 New York Times editorial called the case for impeachment “short, simple and damning,” relying on key allegations that have no support in the evidence:
“President Donald Trump abused the power of his office by strong-arming Ukraine, a vulnerable ally, holding up hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid until it agreed to help him influence the 2020 election by digging up dirt on a political rival.”
Such reflexive anti-Trumpism deprives the public of much-needed impartial reporting and thoughtful commentary. It also further undermines the media’s already abysmal credibility with the public.
Anti-Trump lawyers have likewise abandoned sound constitutional analysis and basic concepts of due process in their zeal to undermine Trump’s legitimacy. One notable example is Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe. (See here and here.) Lawyers selected by House Democrats to testify at the impeachment hearings advocated sweeping grounds for impeachment that have no clear limits or objective standards. Like the media, they took liberties with the facts and engaged in ridiculously exaggerated rhetoric. One of them, Michael Gerhardt, testified:
“The president’s serious misconduct, including bribery, soliciting a personal favor from a foreign leader in exchange for his exercise of power, and obstruction of justice and Congress are worse than the misconduct of any prior president, including what previous presidents who faced impeachment have done or been accused of doing. * * * If Congress fails to impeach here, then the impeachment process has lost all meaning and, along with that, our Constitution’s carefully crafted safeguards against the establishment of a king on American soil.”
Trump is hardly a sympathetic figure and it may be tempting to lower the impeachment bar for him. Ultimately, however, this is an exercise in futility that will accomplish nothing positive and threatens to seriously harm the Nation in the long run. Exactly what constitutes adequate grounds for impeachment is subject to legitimate debate in individual cases. Nevertheless, there should be one overriding test that applies to Trump as well as any other president: Impeachment should not be pursued without significant bipartisan and broad-based public support. Any impeachment that cannot meet this test is almost sure to fail and result only in more political discord.
Republicans should have applied this test to the Clinton impeachment and paid a price for not doing so. It’s a test that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wisely embraced until recently, observing “impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path.” It’s too bad she reversed herself, apparently caving to pressure from her left flank. Our Nation would be better served if Democrats and their allies dropped their flawed impeachment effort and instead concentrated on finding a way to oust Trump at the ballot box in 2020.