Republican Reps Show their Only Impeachment Strategy: Whine and Lie
- Oct 28, 2019
- 5 min read
So, last Wednesday, the House was having a closed door meeting of a deposition with a Pentagon official over Trump's Ukraine debacle. Then, about two dozen Republicans decided to put on a show and "storm" the secure room, whining about how the Democrats were hiding everything and shutting them out from the proceedings. Of course, they didn't mention that in fact, 13 of the Republicans who protested ARE allowed in to the proceedings, and the only reason others weren't were because they weren't on the relevant committees, and that's how this type of closed door inquiry ALWAYS works, for both Democrats and Republicans. Instead, they chose to wait outside of the closed door meeting THAT THEY WERE INVITED TO only to storm it and cry that they weren't in fact, allowed in. Kangaroo Court, indeed.
Also, it's hilarious that the party of "national security" decided they should storm this closed door secure room with their cell phones and record video in the room. For those not aware, this room is called a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF. Basically, you cannot have any electronics when you go in, for security purposes. All cell phones are put in a locked box before entering. Only people of appropriate security clearances are allowed entrance. If you or I decided to walk into one of these facilities with our cell phones even just in our pockets, we'd face jail time. But of course, these Republicans who KNOW it's a huge issue to storm a secure facility with their electronics decide to do it, and nothing happens because, as we are finding out, there's no one in charge of arresting them for these crimes. It's a huge breach of national security and the irony of the "BUT, HER EMAILS" party doing it isn't lost on me.
These Republicans were led by Florida's Best and Brightest, Matt Gaetz, whom if you don't know him its' probably because he's too busy kneeling down at Trump's feet at every single opportunity.
Some of his greatest hits include intimidating a federal witness a day before his testimony on twitter of all places (in non-bizzarro land this action is called Obstruction of Justice and results in jail time for us normal citizens),
Also, he invited Internet troll and Holocaust Denier Charles Johnson to the State of the Union, because you know, people who believe in shit like the holocaust not happening also somehow tend to believe in all the crazy conspiracies that Republicans put out. Strange, that.
And Matt also somehow magically had a DUI charged dropped against him after refusing to take a breathalyzer (automatically gives you a DUI if you refuse and revokes your license). Well, it's not magical, it probably has something to do with the fact that Matt Gaetz's father was also a politician in Florida with rather deep connections and deeper pockets. The American Dream, people.
It's really not a shocker to see why Matt loves getting on his knees for Trump at every opportunity. They both know what it's like to have a real rich daddy to prop them up in life and bail them out whenever they fuck up. You know, the Republican way of "being a self made white man."
Moving back to last Wednesday, Republicans clearly have decided that instead of arguing, you know, the facts of the impeachment inquiry, they're going to obstruct and create false narratives and muddy the waters at every turn. They already have whined about how its not a "real" impeachment inquiry without a formal House vote. Spoiler, it is and there's no precedent saying that it isn't. They made that up, like everything else;
" The Constitution vests impeachment powers in the House of Representatives. Beyond that, the House votes on its own procedural rules. That leaves lots of room for interpretation and leeway for alternate beginnings.
" In the two presidential impeachments of the modern era, the House did have an official kickoff vote on a resolution authorizing the way ahead... But House rules don’t appear to require such a step. And it typically has not been used in impeachments of other officials, notably federal judges, which begin in the Judiciary Committee and go to the full House after the panel has completed its investigation. "
But don't worry, the true hypocrisy and constant goal post shifting of Republican officials will be even more apparent when the House finally does do a formal impeachment vote, which at this point they are almost certainly going to. Republicans will move onto their next whine and obstruction and cries of illegitimacy, which is clearly their one and only play at every turn. Just like their cries of how they're shut out of the inquiry behind this close door session on Wednesday was just a show to drum up the press with a story and change the narrative.
Why must they decry this impeachment inquiry illegitimate, even if so far Democrats have followed all the rules laid out for impeachment that Republicans and Democrats have already previously agreed on? Well, probably because if they sat down and argued about the actual EVIDENCE, they'd have no leg to stand on. Trump admitted on the memo sent out by his own administration he was withholding aid to a foreign government in exchange for an investigation into his political opponent. He then doubled down and asked China LIVE ON TV to do exactly the same. Forget the quid pro quo, asking a foreign government to investigate your political rivals WITHOUT even withholding hundreds of millions of dollars of aid is STILL illegal. I don't understand why this fact is lost on people. It shouldn't be something we have to explain why this is so wrong.
Even Trumps' own National Security Advisor, John Bolton, a huge right wing war hawk, jumped ship after he saw the way that Trump was pushing this narrative with Ukraine;
"Lawmakers involved in the impeachment inquiry heard from two people who worked with Bolton on Ukraine. They said Bolton was so irritated after he learned about the plan to connect U.S. military assistance to a Ukrainian pledge to investigate conspiracies about the 2016 election and the Bidens that he abruptly ended a meeting.
He told Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official in charge of Russia policy, that she should have "nothing to do with domestic politics." According to Hill, Bolton also called Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer and shadow emissary to Ukraine, a "hand grenade who's going to blow everybody up."
But Republican lawmakers have their strategy clearly outlined. Cry and whine and scream that the whole thing is a witch hunt and hope that the American Public tunes out because everyone is yelling and all politics is stupid and "both sides" or some shit. My worry is they probably have a good shot of doing that. Paying attention to this stuff is super exhausting. I'm exhausted, aren't you? Lets tune it all out and watch cat videos together while our democracy is literally torn apart by the corrupt and greedy representatives we have who are desperately trying to hold onto power however they can.
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