I was wrong when I said that impeachment of Donald Trump would never happen after the Mueller report and the subsequent hearing landed like a sputtering balloon let loose this past July.
My July column confidently stated that, “There will be no impeachment and that is a good thing.” Well, now there are enough votes to support the impeachment of the president.
How could I have gotten this so wrong? Probably it was my inability to believe that Trump could be so stupid and that the Congress could move quickly. He survived the Mueller report and it seemed like the House wasn’t going to be able to mount a successful investigation — insert high crime and misdemeanor here — before the presidential primaries fight began heating up.
Looking back, the first thing that I should have factored in was the people Trump hangs around with. Remember what your mother used to say, “You are known by the company you keep.” She was right about that. (By the way, my mother hated Donald Trump.)
Trump has uniquely bad judgment when it comes to friends. Roy Cohn, Jeffery Epstein, Putin, Kanye, Fox & Friends … to use a favorite Trump phrase, “Sad!”
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, is top shelf sad. “America’s Mayor” after 9-11 has turned into the guy who just wants to be in the spotlight and will do anything to get there. Trump and Giuliani’s friendship dates back to the New York City of the 1980s and 1990s when both of them rose to power. Both were called out for their racism and for their disregard of poor people.
Limited to two terms as mayor, Giuliani tried to get his term extended by three months and threatened to go to the state legislature to get rid of the term limit law entirely. The legislature had no interest and so this power grab died. Now he’s the guy who unsuccessfully ran for president, became a national security “expert” and the guy who can’t actually get appointed to a federal job.
He is also Trump’s private unpaid attorney, entrusted to negotiate with Ukraine to end corruption. As a skilled corruption practitioner himself, Trump knew that his friend Rudy was just the guy to take on this challenge. By the way, Trump’s unpaid attorney had to borrow $100,000 from Trump’s paid lawyer, Marc Mukasey, to pay his taxes on the exact same day that Trump was on the now infamous call with President Zelensky.
Trump thought he got away with accepting the help of the Russians in 2016, so why not try again? There are similarities — and differences. Hillary’s emails equal Biden’s son’s involvement in Ukrainian businesses. Trump didn’t talk directly to Putin, but he did talk to President Zelensky. He didn’t spend any money on the Russian scheme in 2016, but he put taxpayer’s money on the table last July. He used Rudy as his cutout instead of Don Jr. When you’re the smartest person in the world, they “let you do it.”
I am grateful for the whistleblower laws that protect the brave public servant that reported the phone call, ultimately tipping the scale toward impeachment. Congress and all previous presidents have understood that our government is stronger when whistleblowers are protected. Trump all but accused the whistleblower of partisanship, but the Republican-controlled Senate (his potential impeachment jury) has unanimously voted to demand the complaint be turned over to the Senate and House Intelligence Committees.
The Ukrainian incident is not about the past — it is about the future. It is about using taxpayer dollars to induce a foreign leader to go after an American presidential candidate “as a favor” to him. It’s about a Republican Party that has swapped honor for power.
I worry that an impeachment trial running concurrently with the 2020 elections might drain the passion necessary for the Democrats to keep the House and flip the Senate and the White House. Watching hearings on TV won’t flip the Senate. Politics isn’t a spectator sport. It’s a full-contact, heavy lifting endeavor.
There is an upside to impeachment though. Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins, Colorado’s Sen. Cory Gardener and Arizona’s Sen. Martha McSally will all have some explaining to do if they continue to stand with Trump.
Dear reader, I am sorry I underestimated Trump. I should have known that he would betray the country again before the 2020 election. But he did. It’s his narcissism. It’s the company he keeps. It’s in his nature.
Clare Higgins, of Northampton, a former mayor of the city, is executive director of the nonprofit Community Action Pioneer Valley. She can be reached at columnists@gazettenet.com.