Outside Trump Tower
Donald Trump, in one of his famous rallies before the election of 2016, was overwhelmed by the love of his “MAGA” crowd. How much “love” did he feel? “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters. It’s like, incredible.”
Taking the President at his word, what would Congress do if the President actually did just that. Say he took an ivory handled pistol, and stepped outside of his former home in Trump Tower. He walked into the middle of Fifth Avenue, raised his pistol and without aiming, fired it down the street. And, what if the bullet struck a spectator walking into the nearby St. Patrick’s Cathedral?
What would be the result? He didn’t aim. There was no proof of his intent to hit the 87-year-old grandmother, coming to light a candle for her late husband. No evidence that he meant to insight panic among those waiting in line to enter the Harry Winston Jewelry store, where one was trampled to death. He was “just” firing the gun in the middle of Fifth Avenue.
Immunity
The President is immune from criminal prosecution according to the Department of Justice. So immune, in fact, that Robert Mueller declined to even posit an opinion as the whether Trump obstructed justice, despite over one hundred pages of evidence to that effect. The only option the Constitution (and the Justice Department) allows is the Constitutional process of removal – impeachment and conviction.
Would the House of Representatives hold long-winded hearings to determine whether the President actually intended those folks to die? Would they “study” the science of bullet trajectory and crowd panic? Or would they just do the right thing. Would they impeach him immediately and bring him to trial in front of the Senate, a trial just like anyone else so irresponsible as to commit such an act. And would the Senate wait a week for a “convenient time” to remove the gun from the President’s hand? Or would remove they him from office, now, so that he can’t do it again.
A Bigger Weapon
On Wednesday, January 6th, 2021, the President of the United States did much more than just “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody”.
- First, he gathered a crowd of supporters for a “wild time” (his words) in Washington DC. He brought them to protest the Congressional counting of the Electoral votes.
- Second, he tried to persuade the Vice President of the United States to shirk his Constitutional duty. He demanded that Pence change the elected will of the American people.
- Third, when that didn’t work, he stepped out in front of the crowd, and fired them up to “fight, fight, fight” for him. He sent them down the National Mall to disrupt the Congress: : “March down Pennsylvania Avenue and take back our country”.
- Fourth, as the mob attacked the Capitol building, he sat in his office, watching on TV and refused to intervene.
He stepped out of the White House onto the National Mall, intentionally “aimed” the mob at the Capitol, and set them off against the Congress. He did it as surely as if he had stepped out of Trump Tower onto Fifth Avenue and fired that gun. Six people are dead, tremendous physical damage done, and psychologically America is shaken to the core.
Remove the President
Sure there are multiple reasons to impeach and remove Donald Trump. But there are two most important points that need to be made. First, the sooner that Donald Trump is out of the Presidency, then the sooner the “gun” is out of his hands. No one; not the Democrats, not the Republicans, not the Vice President, not the White House Chief of Staff, can pretend to know that Donald Trump won’t call forth the mob once again. But we do know that he still has the “Bully Pulpit” of the Presidency in his hands.
And second: the precedent must be established. The head of the executive branch has set “the mob” against the legislative branch. It’s the first time in all of the acrimonious periods in United States history that has happened. Jackson didn’t send the mob against Congress when they censured him in 1834. Nixon didn’t try to rouse a mob in 1974. Even Trump himself didn’t try that tactic just a year ago when he was impeached the first time.
It cannot be allowed to stand, not for a moment. The voice of the Legislative Branch must make it clear to the Executive, to the Nation and to the World, that mob rule will not be the “American Way”.
The Senate should take The House impeachment up – today. If they don’t it is a failure in Democracy. Should they refuse to do so (and Mitch McConnell has) it is just another black mark against the the Trump apologists of this era. They have enabled the “fake news” of this rogue Presidency to triumph once again.
