Maybe a better title would have been: “Trump Tells Pelosi and Schiff Where They Can Stick Their Impeachment Inquiry.” In a scathing letter from White House counsel, President Trump let House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and serial liar Adam Schiff know that their impeachment inquiry is “illegitimate and unconstitutional” and that he won’t comply with their charade any longer.
Trump sent the House democratic leadership an 8-page letter outlining the reasons why the Trump administration will ignore all of their subpoenas related to their unofficial impeachment inquiry.
“President Trump and his administration reject your baseless, unconstitutional efforts to overturn the democratic process. Your unprecedented actions have left the president with no choice. In order to fulfill his duties to the American people, the Constitution, the Executive Branch, and all future occupants of the Office of the Presidency, President Trump and his administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances,” read the letter.
The basic argument is that democrats haven’t formally announced an impeachment inquiry, which requires a House majority vote to establish.
“In the history of our nation, the House of Representatives has never attempted to launch an impeachment inquiry against the president without a majority of the House taking political accountability for that decision by voting to authorize such a dramatic constitutional step,” the letter read.
Trump also pointed out that the democrats are trying to run this unofficial impeachment inquiry in secret, denying the President due process. Mostly however, the letter was about how baseless the accusations against President Trump are and how full of crap Adam Schiff is:
“Perhaps the best evidence that there was no wrongdoing on the call is the fact that, after the actual record of the call was released, Chairman Schiff chose to concoct a false version of the call and to read his made-up transcript to the American people at a public hearing. The chairman’s action only further undermines the public’s confidence in the fairness of any inquiry before his committee,” the letter read.
The letter also pointed out that Schiff had contact with the whistleblower before the complaint was filed and that he lied about it.
“In any event, the American people understand that Chairman Schiff cannot covertly assist with the submission of a complaint, mislead the public about his involvement, read a counterfeit version of the call to the American people, and then pretend to sit in judgment as a neutral ‘investigator,’” read the letter.
Democrats will of course be screaming “obstruction of justice” which is exactly what Trump wants (more on that in a sec). The thing is, Trump is 100% right here. Congress has oversight powers, but they don’t have unlimited oversight powers. If they want to subpoena documents and call witnesses, it has to be for an official investigation. Democrats have announced an impeachment inquiry, but they haven’t gotten around to making it official. Until then, they can go suck a lemon.
The real purpose of this letter is some more of that Ninja-master stuff Trump pulls on the democrats all the time. He wants them to hold a House vote, so every single member is on record either supporting or opposing impeachment. This in turn will force democrats in swing districts to put their seats in jeopardy because polling strongly suggests that incumbents in these purple places are dunzo if they back impeaching Trump.
On a grander scale, Trump wants the democratic-led House to vote for this because there is no reason, legally, morally, or ethically, to impeach impeach him. The backlash against the democrats will be felt at the ballot box for unfairly trying to remove the freely-elected President of the United States from office.
This is Trump getting democrats to paint themselves into a corner and they’ll do it because if they were smart they’d be Republicans.
