Undaunted

Calls for impeachment should be commended

Donald Trump cannot erase from Americans’ memories his recent displays of emotional and mental unfitness, which ended in strategic defeat. The issue is not whether he will be forced from office — his Republican toadies for now will make sure that never happens so long as they are in control — but whether he should be.

Democrats who make the case that Trump has irreversibly revealed his unfitness to lead do the country and our democracy a service. If nothing else, they highlight the utter irresponsibility of Trump’s lap-dogs in Congress in leaving him in control of the armed forces, including nuclear weapons.

“Donald Trump has blown past every requirement to be removed from office. And it’s getting worse,” said Rep. John Larson (D-CT), who filed articles of impeachment this week. “He’s becoming more unstable by the day. His profane and sacrilegious Easter Sunday and subsequent threats, including ‘a whole civilization will die’ and ‘open the Strait…or you’ll be living in hell’ not only foreshadow war crimes, but put our security at risk.”

While Larson urged Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s Cabinet to act, he is not banking on that. He vowed “to help build a clear and undeniable record of Donald Trump’s corruption, high crimes, and violations of the Constitution, so that when the moment comes, whether in this Congress or the next, we are prepared to act decisively and uphold the rule of law.”

He is hardly alone. Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) also said she would file articles of impeachment. Beyond that, Axios counted at least 85 Democrats (mostly House members) who spoke out on Tuesday to urge he be removed via the 25^th Amendment or impeachment.

The reason for impeachment did not vanish with the ceasefire (about which Trump is wildly lying), as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) explained:

The President has threatened a genocide against the Iranian people, and is continuing to leverage that threat.

He has launched a massive war of enormous risk and of catastrophic consequence without reason, rationale, nor Congressional authorization — which is as clear a violation of the Constitution as any. Each day this goes on, the risk and criminality of these actions escalate for our nation and the world.

Moreover, this administration’s self-enrichment, insider trading, and pure corruption off this chaos — from cryptocurrencies to predictive trading markets to bribe “settlements” — has placed the Trump administration’s pursuit of personal wealth squarely against the wellbeing of our nation and its people.

All of these incidents, and plenty more, have clearly driven our country past the threshold for impeachment or invocation of the 25th amendment. We cannot risk the world nor the wellbeing of our nation any longer. None of these considerations should be partisan, but shared in good faith by Americans of all backgrounds who care for the safety and stability of the United States.

AOC makes a critical point: While Trump plainly violated the Constitution in launching and conducting the war, the risk is enormous that he will do even worse as time passes. (That’s an entirely reasonable conclusion, whether you believe he has dementia or simply conclude with age, he is less able to cope when the walls close in). This would be a prophylactic impeachment necessary to remove a ticking time bomb (excuse the metaphor) that could go off at any time.

After the ceasefire’s announcement, other House Democrats echoed AOC’s call for impeachment. “Temporary ceasefire or not, Trump already committed an impeachable offense,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) tweeted. “Congress needs to get back to work and remove him from office before he does more damage to our country and the world.” Likewise, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) tweeted: “Just because a President announces he’s agreed to a two week ceasefire moments before he threatened to commit war crimes, does not mean he is suddenly fit to serve.”

Why raise impeachment if it is not attainable now? For one thing, Democrats need to be on record warning the country that Trump’s continued occupancy of the Oval Office endangers all Americans. In ignoring unmistakable signs of his mental, emotional, and moral infirmity, Republicans assume full responsibility for all debacles that one can reasonably anticipate for the remainder of his term (e.g., further wars and war crimes, increasingly extreme incitement against judges).

Without reference to previous corruption and wrongdoing, to impeach solely based on how he has handled Iran provides at least four separate and wholly sufficient grounds for impeachment:

1.) Violation of the Constitution in taking the country to war without congressional consent;

2.) Violation of international law (and thereby U.S. law via the Supremacy Clause) in threatening genocide;

3.) Unforgivable malfeasance in ignoring all warnings about the risk of Iran’s retaliation and capture of the Strait of Hormuz; and

4.) Stunning capitulation that endangers our national security and ignores his obligations as commander-in-chief.

Somehow, he actually celebrates handing Iran — a brutal regime, sworn enemy of the United States, and international scofflaw he has identified as “evil” — the Strait of Hormuz, without restrictions on Iran’s uranium enrichment or missile programs, and without support for regional proxies. Then, he either misrepresents or doesn’t understand what he gave away.

Major General (Ret.) Paul Eaton argues that unconstitutionally cutting out Congress was the genesis of the horrors that followed. “A congressional debate would have forced this administration to articulate a strategy, define objectives, and present metrics for success — the basic elements of any military campaign,” he argues.

Without that debate, we went to war with the ability to blow things up and no coherent idea of why we were blowing them up... . A war that cannot define its own purpose cannot be won.

Eaton, like numerous experts (“Iran has survived this war battered but sounding triumphant, and it has good reason to be”) well-versed in the Middle East and this “strategic fiasco”, concludes: “This was a net loss for the United States.” Indeed, this is an egregious, entirely predictable, and wholly avoidable loss that will put us at a significant economic and geopolitical disadvantage for years to come.

In sum, the undaunted, unwavering, and uncompromising patriots who warned in advance of the dangers of this unconstitutional folly and continue to advocate for Trump’s removal deserve our thanks and praise. This is a debacle of historic proportions; let Republicans defend keeping a madman in office for another 2 ½+ years.

We salute them, and encourage others to join the “Get him out of there!” chorus.