BTRTN: What Would Impeachment Really Look Like? Not Pretty...For Anyone.

[reggieandlee]

Born To Run The Numbers pauses to contemplate what the United States might experience if Donald Trump became the first President removed from office through impeachment:

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/04/btrtn-what-would-impeachment-really.html

Excerpts: "In short, Cohen appears to be patient zero for just about any and every area of possible Trump malfeasance. Pundits were salivating at the prospect that this could lead to a plea bargain and eyewitness evidence from Trump’s most intimate advisor outside his own family. Have smoking gun, will travel. In the grand liberal wet dream, Cohen would lead the Conga line of dunces who have served as Donald Trump’s enablers, fixers, thugs, campaign advisors and Cabinet Officers as they parade one by one in front of a Senate impeachment trial and sing their songs of money laundering, fraud, obstruction of justice, and the big “C,” – the cancer on this Presidency – collusion. When the roll call rolls and the bells toll in this Democratic fantasy, 68 Senators give Trump the thumbs down, and the President is measured for an orange jump suit in the Federal Confinement Resort and Spa in Cumberland, Maryland. The next day, tens of millions of Trump voters denounce the former President and admit to their neighbors that they had made a terrible mistake in voting for him. Beams of sunlight slice through the clouds and the United States of America reverts back to the precise cultural coordinates that had been in place on November 7, 2016.

Dream on, lefty..."

[PubliusEnigma]

1. Won't know til we try it.

[Blue Owl]

2. Umm... Can anything look more ugly than this sham of an administration?

[Chakaconcarne]

3. I call bs on all of this no impeachment talk...

if the shoe fits.....

[reggieandlee]

4. Please don't misunderstand...

This article was not saying that there should not be impeachment proceedings. Quite the opposite. It was saying that as soon as Mueller is ready to present his whole case, he should attempt to negotiate a deal that essentially forces Trump to publicly admit guilt. This would avoid furthering the radical polarization of the society because of an impeachment trial, would remove Trump from office more quickly, and would silence him in the public arena.

If Trump does not agree to the deal, then absolutely proceed with impeachment.

Thanks for commenting.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

5. I remember David Swanson writing that the party that impeaches wins

He cited Republican success post-Clinton, and argued for impeachment of GW Bush.

If the Dems win the House, there will be hearings on a variety of topics. Impeachment would require at least partial Republican acquiescence. They'd have to do a calculus on whether they'd be better off moving Pence into the Oval and running him as an incumbent. My guess is that TPTB in the Republican party will (in private) use the possibility of bipartisan impeachment as a lever to keep Trump in line and discouraging him from running in 2020.

[Nitram]

6. Enough doom and gloom already.

I don't care if it's impeachment or resignation, the country will not survive unless Trump is removed from office. And prosecuted to the full extent of the law. We made the mistake of letting Nixon go, and we are paying the price for that now.

[reggieandlee]

7. Yes and no...

I am hoping that Donald Trump leaves office the same way Richard Nixon did... by resignation, rather than by a prolonged impeachment process that could possible exacerbate the partisan and cultural divides that are ripping our country apart. If, as this article suggests, the price of securing his rapid resignation is a deal in which he is not prosecuted as long as he and his family admit to all crimes and are required to stay completely out of the public view, that seems to be an acceptable trade-off to have him leave quickly and completely.

If he refuses to resign, that he should be impeached, convicted, removed from office, and then and his family members should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law on both a Federal and local level...and, if found guilty, imprisoned.

I am curious about your comment... I think that Gerald Ford paid dearly for having pardoned Nixon. But I am not sure that the negative consequences to the country of failing to prosecute Nixon were not outweighed by the benefits of being able to heal and move forward. Would love to hear you expand on your thinking.

Thanks.

[Nitram]

9. That was the way I saw it at the time. Since then I've wondered if failure to impeach Nixon resulted

in stolen elections and finally, Trump.

[Paladin]

8. "Why in God's name did they allow trump to stay in office so long and do that much damage?"

That's the question that people are going to be asking about us, a century from now. The fact that impeachment proceedings against trump aren't presently under way is already our shameful burden to bear. I want him out of office by close of business today---and kindly refrain from any "Pence will be worse" horseshit, OK? Nobody is any worse than trump. Nobody.