House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision Tuesday to open a formal impeachment inquiry is a momentous step. Without some caution, it could also be a perilous one for American democracy. The impetus for Pelosi’s pronouncement was a whistle-blower complaint by a U.S. intelligence official that alleges misconduct by the president. Donald Trump’s administration tried its best to prevent the full complaint from being shared with Congress, which Pelosi said was the last straw. As the details of this case have emerged, it’s become evident why the president wanted to suppress them: They show a flagrant abuse of power.
In July, Trump had a phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. According to the complaint, Trump attempted to cajole his counterpart into digging up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s chief rival in the 2020 election, in an effort to help his reelection bid. A summary of the call released by the White House reads for all the world like an implicit quid pro quo is being discussed — and news reports suggest that Trump was withholding military aid from Ukraine at the time. Subtlety has never been a virtue of this administration.
In fact, the whistle-blower described the call as part of a pattern, and even detailed efforts within the White House to “lock down” records of the conversation, suggesting that officials knew full well it was improper. The inspector general for the intelligence community agreed: He thought such conduct could amount to a “serious or flagrant” abuse under the applicable statute and might even expose the president “to serious national security and counterintelligence risks.” The acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, conceded in testimony Thursday that the whole thing was “unprecedented.”
Unfortunately, though, this incident isn’t all that surprising. It’s of a piece with how Trump has conducted himself throughout his presidency. He has abused his power, degraded his office, obstructed justice, undermined the Constitution, impeded legitimate oversight, defied court rulings, enriched his family on the public dime, ignored inconvenient laws, asserted nonexistent privileges, declared spurious emergencies to justify his whims, and otherwise acted like a would-be tyrant almost from the day he entered office. At times, it feels as though he’s begging to get impeached.
The key for Democrats, as they go down this road, is to focus on these legitimate grievances and otherwise proceed with caution. They shouldn’t let this effort devolve into another partisan circus. Democrats on the campaign trail should show restraint and let Congress do its work.
Republicans, for their part, should be willing to follow procedural norms, accept plain facts, and uphold their long-established principles of executive restraint and rule of law. If they oppose impeachment, they should be able to defend the president’s actions on the merits, not resort to conspiracy theories. Principled criticisms by Senator Mitt Romney and Representative Justin Amash should be a model.
All this may sound like a tall order. But the framers of the Constitution never intended impeachment to be a tool for scoring partisan points or sending a message to the president. It’s a grave measure meant to secure his ouster. Both sides should treat this step with the seriousness it deserves, and remember that much more is at stake than politics.
— Bloomberg News
