The Impeachment Process Has Officially Begun (1 Viewer)

[Andrus]

By Laura Bassett

After months of internal arguing among Democrats over whether to impeach President Donald Trump, the dam is finally breaking in favor of trying to remove him from office. The Washington Post reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would announce a formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday, following a bombshell report that Trump illegally asked Ukraine’s government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, one of his political opponents. (He essentially admitted to having done so over the weekend.)

“Now that we have the facts, we’re ready,” Pelosi said Tuesday morning at a forum hosted by The Atlantic. At 5 p.m. the same day, she was back with more. "The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the constitution, especially when the president says Article Two says I can do whatever I want," referring to the segment of the Constitution that defines the power of the executive branch of the government. Pelosi's message was that checks and balances of those branches are just as central to the Constitution. And one more thing: "Today, I am announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry," she said at a conference broadcast on Twitter by the Huffington Post. ...

Read the Full Story - InStyle

 

[Beach Friends]

These folks are mad:

 

[Beach Friends]

These folks are mad, but civil:



Either way, the Democrats in red districts are probably not going to be there next term, IMO.

 

[MT15]

Did you watch more than a snippet of the Michigan Rep’s town hall? I saw several clips. There were about 8 Trump supporters who tried to shout over her answers as to why she made up her mind to vote for impeachment. I kinda thought you were against that sort of behavior.....

Anyway, she waited until they gave up their shouting, she did a good job of remaining civil to them and explained her thinking. She then received a standing ovation from the majority of the crowd. Most of the people there grew quickly tired of the Trump supporters’ bad behavior.

So, whoever your first tweet is from has badly misled you about what actually happened.

 

[FullMonte]

Oh that would be rich, since there are no crimes. Sure, go ahead and claim the word bribery when not a single witness used the word bribery in their testimony.

DA: What happened?
Victim: That man pointed a gun at me and told me to give him my wallet.
Defense Attorney: Your honor, I demand you release my client. That person did not use the phrase “armed robbery.”

 

[Beach Friends]

I kinda thought you were against that sort of behavior.....

You may have noticed (and then ignored) that I specifically mentioned that the second group was civil.

Anyway, if you get a chance, check out the Politico site that has been tracking public support for impeachment. Opposition to impeachment just passed support.

Also, Axios has a neat graph showing interest in impeachment is fading.

Watching this play out is like watching the Harlem Globetrotters. You already know who is going to win.

 

[Dragon]

You may have noticed (and then ignored) that I specifically mentioned that the second group was civil.

Anyway, if you get a chance, check out the Politico site that has been tracking public support for impeachment. Opposition to impeachment just passed support.

Also, Axios has a neat graph showing interest in impeachment is fading.

Watching this play out is like watching the Harlem Globetrotters. You already know who is going to win.

So If you have "public support" you can just break the law and your oath to preserve and protect the constitution?

This is not about winning - this is about the future of your democracy. I'm amazed about how many are willing to demolish that for a short time "win" over the libs. You only talk about polls but what about what is RIGHT and LEGAL?

Do you want any future president to be able to do whatever he pleases regardless of the laws of the land, by claiming absolute executive power? This is what you risk by allowing the actions of the current administration to keep on doing what they do. They break the rules, then claim executive privilegde over any testimony and thereby protect themself from the consequences if their actions. THAT is not a democracy but an autocracy

 

[MT15]

What did he do what was illegal? We are talking about high crimes here. I still haven't seen the democrats prove anything. They have been wanting to try and impeach Trump on anything and this is their last grasp(at straws). The Muller report was a failure, they couldn't use that so this is what they had left before election year.

It's going to die in the senate and the country knows this was a political witch hunt. Even if the left wont be honest about it lol

so, you didn’t really answer my question. It’s obvious now that Trump has sent Rudy overseas to enlist help from Ukraine to smear Joe Biden. Trump also has done some official actions to further this political crusade.

Is that okay with you? Does it bother you in the slightest?

 

[MT15]

You may have noticed (and then ignored) that I specifically mentioned that the second group was civil.

Anyway, if you get a chance, check out the Politico site that has been tracking public support for impeachment. Opposition to impeachment just passed support.

Also, Axios has a neat graph showing interest in impeachment is fading.

Watching this play out is like watching the Harlem Globetrotters. You already know who is going to win.

you can find polls that say the opposite also. I don’t think polls are particularly useful to judge a case like this. It’s most likely that Trump will not be removed from office, but that’s because Republicans are just absolutely shirking their sworn duty to uphold the constitution and act as a check on Executive overreach.

What Trump has done and is still trying to do with Rudy is ultimately corrupt and will be exposed as such at some point, just like his birther nonsense. The ultimate losers will be the Republicans who gave up their principles to support him. Polls today won’t help them when the history books are written.

 

[JimEverett]

So If you have "public support" you can just break the law and your oath to preserve and protect the constitution?

This is not about winning - this is about the future of your democracy. I'm amazed about how many are willing to demolish that for a short time "win" over the libs. You only talk about polls but what about what is RIGHT and LEGAL?

Do you want any future president to be able to do whatever he pleases regardless of the laws of the land, by claiming absolute executive power? This is what you risk by allowing the actions of the current administration to keep on doing what they do. They break the rules, then claim executive privilegde over any testimony and thereby protect themself from the consequences if their actions. THAT is not a democracy but an autocracy

There have been plenty of arguments as to why what is alleged so far is not illegal. Even the Democrats are not asserting anything illegal, hence the nebulous "abuse of power" and "Obstruction of Congress" being the only articles of impeachment.

As far as popularity - this is impeachment. Of course the public mood matters. When you are overturning the results of an election then you had better be able to garner widespread support. The Democrats have clearly failed to do so in this case.

 

[Optimus Prime]

For what it’s worth
=================

A group of more than 700 historians, legal scholars and others published an open letter Monday urging the House of Representatives to impeach President Trump, denouncing his conduct as “a clear and present danger to the Constitution.”

The letter’s release comes two days before the House is expected to vote on two articles of impeachment.

“President Trump’s lawless obstruction of the House of Representatives, which is rightly seeking documents and witness testimony in pursuit of its constitutionally-mandated oversight role, has demonstrated brazen contempt for representative government,” the scholars write in the letter, which was published online by the nonprofit advocacy group Protect Democracy.

“So have his attempts to justify that obstruction on the grounds that the executive enjoys absolute immunity, a fictitious doctrine that, if tolerated, would turn the president into an elected monarch above the law,” they add.

Protect Democracy also released a letter earlier this month from more than 500 law professors asserting that Trump had committed “impeachable conduct.”........

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/more-than-700-scholars-pen-letter-urging-house-to-impeach-trump/2019/12/16/575d980a-2060-11ea-86f3-3b5019d451db_story.html

 

[coldseat]

As far as popularity - this is impeachment. Of course the public mood matters. When you are overturning the results of an election then you had better be able to garner widespread support. The Democrats have clearly failed to do so in this case.

This phrase has been way overused by Republicans, Democrats and the media. Impeachment is not overturning the results of an election. Impeachment is removing a president from power for corruption, abusing power and violating the public trust.

When a president is impeached and removed from office, the Vice-President becomes the President. That is in no way "overturning the results of an election". That's just a useful PR phrase that has become ubiquitous in its use by everybody, but doesn't actually reflect the truth of what is happening.

 

[JimEverett]

This phrase has been way overused by both Republicans, Democrats and the media. Impeachment is not overturning the results of an election. Impeachment is removing a president from power for corruption, abusing power and violating the public trust.

When a president is impeached and removed from office, the Vice-President becomes the President. That is in no way "overturning the results of an election". That's just a useful PR phrase that has become ubiquitous in its use by everybody, but doesn't actually reflect the truth of what is happening.

Whether you like it or not - impeachment is overturning the results of an election. But if you want to get overly semantical - let's say that impeachment is removing a duly elected President. Either way - or whatever way you want to phrase it - the nature of impeachment requires garnering broad support - which is why public sentiment plays an important role. That is something that clearly has not happened, at least not yet.

 

[coldseat]

Whether you like it or not - impeachment is overturning the results of an election. But if you want to get overly semantical - let's say that impeachment is removing a duly elected President. Either way - or whatever way you want to phrase it - the nature of impeachment requires garnering broad support - which is why public sentiment plays an important role. That is something that clearly has not happened, at least not yet.

It's still not overturning the results of the election. Overturning the results of the election would mean (in terms of the last election) Hillary Clinton being installed as president. It's not semantics, it's just factual. It has nothing to do with me liking it or not, lol.

Public sentiment is about 50% -50% depending on when/where the poll is taken. It's been about that since the beginning and it's not going to change, regardless of what happens. People have already decided what they believe and what side they support.

 

[samiam5211]

This phrase has been way overused by both Republicans, Democrats and the media. Impeachment is not overturning the results of an election. Impeachment is removing a president from power for corruption, abusing power and violating the public trust.

When a president is impeached and removed from office, the Vice-President becomes the President. That is in no way "overturning the results of an election". That's just a useful PR phrase that has become ubiquitous in its use by everybody, but doesn't actually reflect the truth of what is happening.

There were 136,669,237 votes cast for President in the 2016 general election.

I've heard Republicans say that impeachment is going to undo the will of 63 million people who voted for Trump.

We could use that same logic to the conclude that the Electoral College undid the will of 74 million people who voted for someone other than Trump.

The electoral college is part of the system the founders set up. It doesn't undo the will of the people, it is part of the system the founders established.

Impeachment doesn't overturn an election, It is part of the system the founders set up. It removes a President who has violated their oath of office or poses a threat to our Republic and system of government.

 

[JimEverett]

Trump won the election. Removing Trump before the end of his term he was elected means overturning the results of the election.

To do so, impeachment is designed to get a supermajority of support. Which is the point of looking at polls and trying to get a handle on where the public is on the issue.

 

[samiam5211]

Doug Collins is quoting the Federalist Papers talking about the danger of a partisan impeachment...

Hamilton was talking about a situation where party loyalty is placed about the good of the country.

It applies whether partisanship is driving support of impeachment, or driving the opposition to impeachment.

Once again, the Republicans are accusing the other side of doing the thing they are actually doing. The Trumpsformation of the Republican party is almost complete.

 

[coldseat]

Trump won the election. Removing Trump before the end of his term he was elected means overturning the results of the election.

Yeah, you keep repeating that, but repetition doesn't make it true, lol.

Just like Trump repeating his endless stream of lies ad nauseam doesn't make any of them the truth.

Truth:

Impeachment is removing a duly elected president from power before his term is completed.

Lie:

Impeachment is overturning the results of an election.

The closest thing this country has had to overturning the results of the election is the SC decision in the Bush v. Gore case (depending on what side you fall on).

 

[JimEverett]

Yeah, you keep repeating that, but repetition doesn't make it true, lol.

Just like Trump repeating his endless stream of lies ad nauseam doesn't make any of them the truth.

Truth:

Impeachment is removing a duly elected president from power before his term is completed.

Lie:

Impeachment is overturning the results of an election.

The closest thing this country has had to overturning the results of the election is the SC decision in the Bush v. Gore case (depending on what side you fall on).

The results of the 2016 election: Trump wins a Presidential term that lasts 4 years.

Impeachment: Removal of Trump before Trump serves 4 years

Therefore:
Impeachment is overturning the results of the election.

Not sure why that offends you so much.