Impeachment is about more than the Mueller report
To some Democrats, impeaching President Trump is not just about whether findings of the Mueller reportshow that he broke the law. It's an umbrella punishment for all the ways he's deviated from the presidential norm.
Here are some common arguments that the 39-and-counting House Democrats who support the start of impeachment proceedings are making for why Trump should be impeached, in addition to the Mueller report.
He's obstructing Congress's probes: If the Mueller report outlining 10 areas of potential obstruction of justice by Trump didn't sell them on impeachment, then Trump's actions since the redacted report was released have. Trump is blocking some 20 probes into him and his administration, often blatantly. Last week came the breaking point for many Democrats. Under pressure from Trump, former White House counsel Donald McGahn — a key witness in Trump's attempts to fire the special counsel and lie about it — ignored a subpoena to testify to Congress.
The argument here goes: If Congress can't stand up for itself now, when will it?
"This is a fight for our democracy," said Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.), announcing in a tweet the day McGahn didn't show up that he now supports opening an investigation into what "high crimes and misdemeanors" Trump may have committed, also known as an impeachment inquiry.
He's going around Congress every time he can't get what he wants: Congress said no to funding his border wall, so Trump declared a national emergency to pull money from elsewhere to construct it. He fired the heads of the Department of Homeland Security over Congress's objections. Last Friday, his administration announced he's using another presidential power to declare an emergency to sell arms to Saudi Arabia over Congress's objections and without letting Congress chime in as it usually does.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who supports an impeachment proceeding, mentioned the Saudi arms deal as one reason she supports it. She told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday: "And he turned around and pretty much ignored Congress's decision; a bipartisan decision."
Congress can't get anything done until he's impeached: This is a parallel argument to those who argue that Congress should consider impeaching Trump because he's blocking congressional investigations into him. This extends to legislation as well.
"All of the good legislation is being killed either in the Senate or by President Trump himself," Rep. Norma J. Torres (D-Calif.) told The Fix, explaining how the Mueller report made her support impeachment. Another reason, she said, is that Trump doesn't want to seem to engage on anything with Congress. (A month after this conversation, Trump walked out of a meeting with congressional leaders on infrastructure.)
"So he's blocking every effort from Democrats to get anything done," Torres continued, "and this is why I'm saying if the people's agenda isn't being listened to by the GOP or President Trump, then we need to meet them where they want to be met. And that is a political debate about all of the things President Trump has been doing regarding the rule of law and holding himself above the law."
He's deserved it for a while now: The hardcore Democrats on impeachment decided Trump should be impeached well before the Mueller report was released. Just the fact that his campaign was being seriously investigated for potential conspiracy with the Russians was enough for them.
"But now the American people, whether they say it or not, they know that this man is dangerous," House Financial Services Committee Chairman Maxine Waters (D-Calf.) said in April, before the unredacted version of the Mueller report was released. "That certainly, he conspired with the Kremlin and with the oligarchs of Russia."
Rep. Al Green (D-Tex.) said on the House floor in March that Trump should be impeached for his administration's policy of separating migrant families at the border, or his "very fine people" comment about violent, self-proclaimed white-nationalist protesters in Charlottesville in 2017.
"If you are corrupting society, if you are creating harm to society, if you are causing things to happen in society that are unacceptable to the people in the United States of America, an unfit president can be impeached for those misdeeds that corrupt and harm society," Green said.
It's now or never: The closer it gets to the 2020 presidential election, the more potent Trump's argument becomes that Democrats are just trying to impeach him to avoid having to unseat him at the ballot box. So, impeachment supporters say, Democrats who are on the fence about impeachment should get on board soon, before it's too late.
"I know there should not be political considerations," Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Tex.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee that would begin proceedings against Trump, told Politico, "but in practical terms the longer we wait, my fear is the closer we get to political season."
Source: Amber Phillips