When Emperor Hirohito took to the radio in August 1945 to inform his subjects of their nation’s surrender, it was shocking to them in more ways than one. It was the first time the Japanese people had ever heard the God-Emperor’s mortal voice. We’re not quite at that point, but here we sit, not subjects of an emperor but citizens in a democracy, and for three or four days running we have no idea what our employee the president is thinking or doing. I mean, we have a pretty good guess; he’s fuming. But what’s he thinking and planning? Remember, that nuclear football is never more than a few feet away.
It’s now clear he’s not going to resign, and he isn’t going to be removed from office. The House will impeach him this week. Sunday evening, Nancy Pelosi sent out a letter explaining how matters will proceed. I do note that as of Sunday, the impeachment resolution had only 180 cosponsors, but Pelosi is supposed to know how to count noses better than anyone, so I doubt she’d have sent out that letter if she didn’t have the votes. I’m gung-ho for impeachment, as I’ve written. But over the weekend some fair questions have arisen that need to be thought through.
For starters, let’s look at this from Joe Biden’s vantage point. He said publicly last week that it was the House’s call, but you can hardly blame him if he’s not terribly enthusiastic. He doesn’t want Trump hovering over the first days of his administration like that. Plus, he wants the Senate working to confirm his nominees and pass a big COVID relief bill. The headlines being all about impeachment for the first however many weeks of his administration would be a legit disaster from his point of view.
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Maybe there’s a way to finesse it. Some are suggesting that if the House impeaches Trump this week, the Senate can delay the trial until after it confirms Biden’s appointees, passes a relief bill, and starts to move on other measures like maybe infrastructure. I have another thought, which is that perhaps the Senate could set specific time limits on a trial once Chuck Schumer holds the gavel and controls the calendar. For example, maybe the Senate could spend three hours every afternoon for two weeks on a trial. Rudy Giuliani or Alan Dershowitz or whatever chump Trump gets to represent him would try to drag it out, calling crooked witnesses and so on, but as we saw in the last impeachment, the Senate majority leader has control over all that.
And speaking of witnesses, the Senate could of course subpoena a lot of people. Mike Flynn. Mark Meadows. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone. Mike Pence. Jared. Trump himself. They’d refuse to go. The Supreme Court would, I assume, even this Supreme Court, order them to go. If they still refused, would they then be arrested? We may be in for some very interesting times.
I’m sure Biden wouldn’t want the mess, but this isn’t just about him. It’s about ensuring the survival of our democracy. One hard lesson we’ve learned from these awful years is that our Constitution and laws have left many questions about executive accountability unanswered. If the Trump family is going to stay in politics, and if the Republican Party is going to continue down this fascist road, which it looks like it will for the foreseeable future, we need answers to those questions.
The final thing to remember that is impeachment will fail again. Especially after Trump’s gone, 17 Republicans aren’t going to vote to convict him. That’s not an argument against doing it. But it is an argument against spending too much time on it.
As an alternative to impeachment, the historian Eric Foner has suggested that the Democrats invoke Article 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, under which they could apparently bar Trump from ever serving in office again. It has the virtue of requiring only simple majorities in both houses. It’s clean and simple and would take a lot less time than impeachment. I worry, though, about the precedent that sets. It’s not hard to see Republicans ginning up some phony “Democrat” scandals (they think all Democrats are traitors anyway) and barring any number of Democrats from holding future office.
In sum, the Democrats have to punish Trump, but they ought to do it fast and without making a huge deal out of it. Remember, there’s another crisis going on, aside from the democracy crisis. There’s a public health crisis (along with a related economic crisis), and President Biden and the Democrats have to prove that they can direct a competent response as the more virulent new strain of the virus spreads here.
Remember also that there are other ways to bring Trump and his crew to account. There are the courts. And even if Trump pardons himself, New York state can still go after him, and it’s those violations that might land him in the clink anyway.
And finally, there’s the coming investigation. That’s where the money is. Impeaching Trump again may be important for the historical record, but what the country really needs is a major investigation into the riot—how it came together, who had a role in planning it, and the rest. I have a feeling it involved a pretty large number of Republican officials, elected and appointed, from around the country, coordinating with white supremacist groups and other radical right elements. And, of course, with people in the Trump White House, the first family, and maybe even Trump himself. Recall that he tweeted in December that it “will be wild!”
The Washington Post reported Sunday that a joint congressional panel, which I suggested in my last column, is under consideration. I hope to God they go this route. A joint committee tells the country how important this is. It lets Schumer and Pelosi choose their best questioners and assign their best investigators, and they can give it all the budget they want. How much would you like to see Junior being grilled and humiliated and waltzed into three or four perjury traps by Katie Porter?
Meantime—nine days to go. Don’t exhale yet. Sedition can be committed by a lawless mob—or by one cruel and foolish man with a smartphone and a lot of power.
