With apologies for the late start, let’s jump right in.
Let’s have a thought experiment. Or two.
Imagine it’s 2013. While having your morning coffee, you flip on the television to your regular cable news channel and there you see live footage from New York City, where US Marshals and the FBI are conducting a raid on Trump Tower. Agents in navy windbreakers are carrying dozens of boxes and by lunchtime the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York has announced that Donald Trump, his sons, his daughter, his son-in-law, Michael Cohen and a few other high ranking members of the Trump organization are being charged with tax evasion, fraud, and money laundering. Rumors swirl of additional charges, including the possibility of RICO violations. A grand jury hears the case and several of the defendants are sentenced to jail.
Would you have been surprised? Be honest.
Now try this one. It’s 2020, and a very unpopular Hillary Clinton is president. She has a core of support that hovers around 42%, an opposition of around 47%, and the rest of the nation is skeptical, at best. Her opponent is Senator Marco Rubio, an articulate young Republican who has laid out a hopeful vision for his party. President Clinton spends much of the 2020 campaign season alleging that the vote will be tainted by a corrupt system, and that any victory for Sen Rubio must be the result of fraud. Election night is a close call but after all absentee ballots roll in from around the country, it is clear that Sen Rubio has won the election. Hoping for a miracle, Clinton’s lawyers file a long series of challenges and lose over 60 of them. Many of the cases are thrown out and rejected by Clinton’s own appointees.
Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress cry foul and claim the election is fraudulent, with dozens of Democrats in the House pledging to reject the electoral votes in a few key swing states. Several Democrats in the Senate pledge their cooperation in the effort. The day Congress is set to certify the votes, Clinton holds a rally outside the Capitol and urges her supporters to “fight like hell.” She calls on her own vice president to reject the certification of the votes. One of her lawyers urges hand to hand combat, and one of her allies in the House speaks “kicking ass and taking names.” And sure enough, a group of aggressive Clinton supporters attack the Capitol building, calling for the Speaker of the House and the Vice President to be hanged. They ransack officers and before the fracas is cleared, at least one police offer is dead.
Now imagine that the GOP-led house votes to impeach the president while she is still in office only to have the Senate Majority Leader, a Democrat, delay an impeachment trial until after Clinton has left the White House. And once the Senate convenes, the majority of Democrats vote to acquit on constitutional technicalities.
Do you think the Republicans in the Senate would just….move on?
I have my doubts.
And if Republicans are serious about getting to the bottom of what happened on January 6, they could call for a bipartisan 9/11-style commission - with subpoena power! - to determine what happened.
It is curious that they have not yet done so.
Let’s simmer on that for a minute. More next time - including some thoughts on Alabama’s open senate race in 2022.