By Their Oath<\/p>\n
Republican Congressman Devin Nunes of California, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee; gave a fundraising speech last week.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
The essence of Nunes\u2019 message:\u00a0 that the Republican majority in the House of Representatives was the only thing standing between President Trump and impeachment.\u00a0 Nunes made it clear that since Attorney General Sessions won\u2019t \u201cun-recuse\u201d himself and fire Mueller; that the House should take up the impeachment of Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein once again. \u00a0\u00a0Their goal: \u00a0get rid of Rosenstein and replace him with a more amenable Deputy who would get rid of the \u201cmeddlesome\u201d Special Counsel.<\/p>\n
And with an insider\u2019s nod, he explained that they couldn\u2019t impeach yet, because the Senate was busy with the Brett Kavanaugh nomination.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t want to interfere with that.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 There would be plenty of legislative space from November until the House adjourned in December, regardless of the results of the popular vote.<\/p>\n
The \u201csecret tape\u201d was revealed with all of the drama of \u201cGeraldo and the safe\u201d on the Rachel Maddow show.\u00a0 What did it show?\u00a0 \u00a0Nunes thinks exactly what we thought he thinks, and that he is stupid enough to say it in a setting where it became public.\u00a0 It made for outrage in the \u201cResistance,\u201d but no surprises.<\/p>\n
But it did openly reveal what has been apparent for a while.\u00a0 Republicans are pretty sure that Trump did something illegal.\u00a0 They are planning on Mueller coming out with criminal offenses that would place anyone other than the President under indictment.\u00a0And, they believe that Mueller probably won\u2019t indict the President, but place all of the evidence against him in front of the House and the public.<\/p>\n
Republicans are laying the groundwork for the defense against those charges.\u00a0 Rudy Giuliani has been making their strategy clear through his incoherent ramblings: \u00a0the \u201cseventeen angry Democrats\u201d 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.\u00a0 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\u2019t \u201cwrap up\u201d his investigation by September 1st<\/sup>, then he is illegitimately trying to influence the Congressional election.\u00a0 It is the \u201cphantom\u201d Department of Justice sixty-day rule.<\/p>\n What does all of this \u201csmoke\u201d imply?\u00a0 Republicans are preparing to lose control of the House of Representatives.\u00a0 They clearly believe that a Democrat controlled House will begin investigations, followed by impeachment hearings and actual impeachment of the President.\u00a0 It only takes a simple majority of the House to bring charges against the President, and if Democrats have it, they will use it.<\/p>\n There is little Republicans in the House will be able to do at that point, other than to try to \u201cmuddy the waters.\u201d\u00a0 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.\u00a0 \u00a0The Senate would decide the fate of an impeached Donald Trump, with sixty-seven votes required to remove the President.\u00a0 This means, regardless of the election outcome in November, it will require sixteen or seventeen Republican Senators to vote for removal.<\/p>\n This entire campaign of disinformation about the Mueller investigation isn\u2019t really aimed at the House, or the public.\u00a0 It is ultimately aimed at those few Republican Senators who might ultimately be persuaded by charges against the President.\u00a0 It gives them an \u201cout\u201d to stand for the President, to claim that the entire investigation is illegitimate.<\/p>\n The oath each Senator (and all government officials) pledges upon entering office:<\/p>\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n We are on a long road towards impeachment.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 There will be more roadblocks.<\/p>\n And the Mueller Team remains silently doing their work.\u00a0We don\u2019t know what they know, or what they have.\u00a0 We do now that they will ultimately place their evidence before the nation.\u00a0 And then we will ask our Senators to live up to that oath of office, rather than their political allegiances.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"