Fox News
Fox News will tell you that Democrats have been trying to remove Donald Trump from the Presidency since the day of his inauguration. They aren’t wrong; there has been a series of actions since January 20, 2017, that have outraged a majority of Americans. Those actions have been so far outside the “norms” of what we expect from the President of the United States and the “Leader of the Free World,” that some form of removal became common conversation.
Because there’s been so much controversy, so many outrages, and so much insult to our Constitutional form of government: let’s not forget what we are determining in this coming pivotal year in American history, 2020.
Truth Fails
We should have known from the day after the inauguration, when Press Secretary Sean Spicer came out and demanded that the Trump ceremonies were the largest and best attended in American history, a demonstrable falsehood. While that lie didn’t matter in the short run, in the full scope of the Trump Presidency it set the stage. We should have known that the truth was the very first casualty of Donald J. Trump.
Five days later, President Trump began his assault on migrants. He ordered federal aid stripped from “sanctuary cities,” though the Courts would stop that order. A few days later he banned refugees from seven Muslim countries. The Courts banned that order as well, though a modified version eventually went into effect.
All the President’s Men
We soon found Trump’s appointees were flawed. National Security Advisor General Mike Flynn resigned and ultimately pled guilty to Federal felonies. Attorney General Sessions misled or lied to the Senate in his confirmation hearing, and recused himself from the Russian investigation. His Health and Human Services Secretary, Tom Price, resigned under investigation, as did his Secretary of the Interior and Environmental Protection Agency Director.
Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka, all with white supremacist ties, were made senior advisors to the President. Bannon and Gorka were later fired, but Miller remains. Mr. Trump also made his daughter and son-in-law senior advisors as well.
Russia
We found out that the FBI was investigating the Trump campaign for its connections with Russia. The President then fired Jim Comey, the FBI Director, and on TV a few days later stated that it was because of “Russia”. He then met with the Russian Foreign Minister, and said the “pressure was off” because of the firing. In that same meeting, the President revealed classified information, causing an ally’s agent to be put in danger.
Soon a Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, was appointed to continue the Russia investigation. We would later learn that the President would order his firing, but the White House Counsel and a Trump campaign manager refused to carry out the order.
Strong Men
We found that Mr. Trump had an affinity for dictators. President Duarte of the Philippines was invited to the White House, and we later learned the President was close to Prince Muhammad Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, President Erdogan of Turkey, and Premier Kim of North Korea. But the leader Mr. Trump showed the most respect for was President Putin of Russia. In contrast, he showed continuing disdain for our allies; Trudeau of Canada, Macron of France, Merkel of Germany and Nieto of Mexico.
Charlottesville
Then there was Charlottesville. The President failed to condemn racism, then said the famous phrase: “…there were good people, on both sides. I know it, and you know it too.” It was perhaps the last “pivot point” for Republicans, when they could have stepped away from supporting Trump. But, while many condemned the words, they remained in his support.
And all of that was in the first year.
Security Clearances and Porn Stars
In January of 2018, we found out about the porn star payoff.
The President continued the wage war against his own intelligence services. In particular, the President continually attacked the FBI, still involved in the Mueller investigation.
We found out that the White House waived security clearance procedures for several senior staff members, including the critical Staff Secretary, who resigned under allegations of abusing his wife. Jared Kushner also avoided questions on his security clearance.
Child Separation
And then there was child separation at the border. Thousands of migrant children were taken from their parents, put into confinement camps, and “lost” in the system. Tent camps were set up near the border to handle the separated children, and we found that many were transported in the dead of night all over the country. We then found that this was an intentional plan to “deter” migration by taking children from their parents. Senior Advisor Stephen Miller and Attorney General Jeff Sessions were pushing the plan.
5460 children were separated (NBC). Even today, entering 2020, as many as 120 children are still separated from their parents (ACLU).
Mueller
His personal attorney, Michael Cohen, admitted to paying hush money to a porn star to hide the President’s affair with her before the election. He also admits to lying to Congress about that, and the Trump Organization’s involvement with building a Trump Tower in Moscow. Michael Cohen gets sentenced to three years in jail.
President Trump defended Muhammad Bin Salman in the kidnapping, murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He has continued to ignore his own Intelligence Agencies findings that MBS was the prime instigator of the murder.
All of that happened, and more, up to a year ago today.
And this year, 2019, we had the Mueller Report. It showed hundreds of contacts between the 2016 Trump Campaign and Russian intelligence sources. While Mueller was unable to prove conspiracy, the Report outlined that the finding was in part caused by the obstruction of the Trump staff.
In addition, the Mueller Report outlined ten counts of President Trump’s obstruction of justice. Mueller saw himself as hamstrung by Department of Justice policy against indicting a sitting President, but he made it clear that these were indictable offenses.
But Mr. Trump’s new Attorney General, Bill Barr, distorted and confused Mueller’s findings. He determined himself that the obstruction charges were invalid, and told the nation that the President was exonerated. That’s not what Mueller said.
Today
And finally, we have the current Ukraine crisis. The President used the power of his office to pressure another nation to interfere in the 2020 election by smearing Mr. Trump’s potential opponent, Joe Biden. And for that, Trump was impeached, and faces trial in the Senate.
What will happen in the Senate is still uncertain, though it seems unlikely that the President will be removed from office. What is likely is that the campaign of 2020 will be even uglier than 2016 was.
President Trump has done so much to this country; it’s easy to become numb to his actions. What would have been outrageous in 2015 has become commonplace. But, on this last day of 2019, let us remember: why we fight.
Special Thanks to AOL for providing a comprehensive Trump Time Line
