By Their Oath
Republican Congressman Devin Nunes of California, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee; gave a fundraising speech last week. In the grand tradition of Mitt Romney and the 49% speech, there was an undercover reporter with an IPhone, getting all of what Nunes had to say between the clink of glasses and clank of silverware on plates.
The essence of Nunes’ message: that the Republican majority in the House of Representatives was the only thing standing between President Trump and impeachment. Nunes made it clear that since Attorney General Sessions won’t “un-recuse” himself and fire Mueller; that the House should take up the impeachment of Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein once again. Their goal: get rid of Rosenstein and replace him with a more amenable Deputy who would get rid of the “meddlesome” Special Counsel.
And with an insider’s nod, he explained that they couldn’t impeach yet, because the Senate was busy with the Brett Kavanaugh nomination. He wouldn’t want to interfere with that. But after Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court, and after the mid-term elections, it would be time to impeach Rosenstein so Mueller could be fired. There would be plenty of legislative space from November until the House adjourned in December, regardless of the results of the popular vote.
The “secret tape” was revealed with all of the drama of “Geraldo and the safe” on the Rachel Maddow show. What did it show? Nunes thinks exactly what we thought he thinks, and that he is stupid enough to say it in a setting where it became public. It made for outrage in the “Resistance,” but no surprises.
But it did openly reveal what has been apparent for a while. Republicans are pretty sure that Trump did something illegal. They are planning on Mueller coming out with criminal offenses that would place anyone other than the President under indictment. And, they believe that Mueller probably won’t indict the President, but place all of the evidence against him in front of the House and the public.
Republicans are laying the groundwork for the defense against those charges. Rudy Giuliani has been making their strategy clear through his incoherent ramblings: the “seventeen angry Democrats” on the Mueller team, the constant refrain of the illegitimacy of the investigation, claiming that it was based on the Steele Dossier, and now a deadline. A nation that clearly saw the impact of the Comey letter on the national election in October of 2016, is now being told that if Mueller doesn’t “wrap up” his investigation by September 1st, then he is illegitimately trying to influence the Congressional election. It is the “phantom” Department of Justice sixty-day rule.
What does all of this “smoke” imply? Republicans are preparing to lose control of the House of Representatives. They clearly believe that a Democrat controlled House will begin investigations, followed by impeachment hearings and actual impeachment of the President. It only takes a simple majority of the House to bring charges against the President, and if Democrats have it, they will use it.
There is little Republicans in the House will be able to do at that point, other than to try to “muddy the waters.” But what Republicans, in the House, and working for the White House, can do is to build a case for the President in the Senate. The Senate would decide the fate of an impeached Donald Trump, with sixty-seven votes required to remove the President. This means, regardless of the election outcome in November, it will require sixteen or seventeen Republican Senators to vote for removal.
This entire campaign of disinformation about the Mueller investigation isn’t really aimed at the House, or the public. It is ultimately aimed at those few Republican Senators who might ultimately be persuaded by charges against the President. It gives them an “out” to stand for the President, to claim that the entire investigation is illegitimate.
The oath each Senator (and all government officials) pledges upon entering office:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
We are on a long road towards impeachment. Republicans, who, according to Nunes, have seen it as their duty to undercut the investigation at every turn, will try to stall as long as possible. The question of whether the President will be questioned by the Mueller team, which has dragged on for over a year, is just another way they have strategically slowed the pace of the investigations. There will be more roadblocks.
And the Mueller Team remains silently doing their work. We don’t know what they know, or what they have. We do now that they will ultimately place their evidence before the nation. And then we will ask our Senators to live up to that oath of office, rather than their political allegiances.
