Monday, April 22, 2019

PKG: After Mueller Report, Democrats split over whether to impeach Trump


President Trump has dismissed suggestions that he is increasingly concerned that Democrats might seek his impeachment following last week's publication of a redacted version of the report by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller.


While the report clears the President of criminal conspiracy with regard to his campaign's contacts with the Russians, it shows Mr. Trump attempted to shut the investigation down, and was unable to remember crucial conversations about meetings between members of his team and Russian emissaries.


Our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks reports that Democrats themselves are split over whether they should spend the political capital necessary to initiate impeachment proceedings.


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Donald Trump's mind this Easter Monday appears to be especially focussed on  the possibility that he will face impeachment proceedings now that Washington has read and digested the Mueller Report.

The actual report …. not the inaccurate summary of its conclusions presented to the American public by the President's loyal Attorney General a month ago.

On Twitter today the President insisted "There were no crimes by me, so you can't impeach".

"How do you impeach a Republican President for a crime that was committed by the Democrats" he asks….an apparent reference to his entirely unproven claim that the Democrats conspired to commit treason….whatever that means….against his administration.

Talk of  impeachment has been boosted by one Democrat seeking the party's Presidential nomination.

Senator Elizabeth Warren became the first Presidential aspirant to say impeachment proceedings should now begin in the House of Representatives.


Warren-self


She spoke on MSNBC.

But so far the other Democrats in the race for the White House have held back from endorsing her position….and say instead that the place to beat Donald Trump is at the ballot box.

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the most powerful elected Democrat currently in Washington would need to initiate any impeachment proceedings, but currently doesn't seem to buy the idea.


Pelosi-self


So what is Donald Trump worried about?

The possibility that as Democrats continue to investigate and dig, their position will harden.

Congressman Jerold Nadler heads the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives.

He has already issued a subpoena for the full, unredacted Mueller Report….and wants Robert Mueller himself to testify on Capitol Hill.

But just listen how long it took him to answer a very simple question asked of him yesterday on NBC.


Nadler-Self


And that long pause gives you a sense that the Democrats know they are dealing with political Kryptonite here.

Do they go through with impeachment, knowing that even those Republicans furious with the President's embrace of Russian emissaries during the 2016 campaign will never - as things currently stand - vote to get rid of him?

The President's team has had a month to control the narrative and insist - falsely - that he was entirely cleared by the Mueller investigation. 

And in the realm of alternative facts, the President's lawyer Rudy Giuliani is now even advancing the argument that there's actually nothing wrong with foreign interference in an American election.


giuliani-self


That will come as news to veteran American politicians who - during previous US elections - immediately alerted the FBI to the kind of foreign skulduggery the Russians were up to during 2016.

It's also a hostage to fortune:  imagine what Republicans will say if Democrats ever decide to accept overtures from - say - China or North Korea.

The President was asked today if he's worried about impeachment.

"Not even a little bit" he said….which does not explain why he spent the morning Tweeting about it.


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