‘You are not asleep, this is not a dream. This is really happening. This is our life. This is our country and our time…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s need to warn her fellow Democrats not to cheer and applaud impeachment were not evidence enough of the underlying partisan motives, the fact that they ignored her surely was.
Following the passage of the first article against President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Pelosi—herself appearing to stifle a smirk—signaled to the left wing of the House floor to cut their giddy celebrations.
After reading the vote totals for Article I of impeachment, @SpeakerPelosi appears to cut off clapping Democrats. The speaker had reportedly told her colleagues not to do so. pic.twitter.com/EdYuI8FesV
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 19, 2019
As Townhall reported, Pelosi’s glare was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Democrats’ showboating—after incessantly repeating the disingenuous claim that they regarded it as a “solemn” occasion.
They even notably mocked the fact that their specious charges were post-hoc, given the majority of Democrats had already demanded impeachment before the so-called offense took place.
‘Trap-Door’ Crimes
Ostensibly, Trump’s impeachable actions began on July 25, during his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. However, that phone call occurred only a day after disastrous testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller in the House Judiciary Committee dispelled all hopes of getting their earlier claims of Russian collusion to stick.
A day after the call, Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, announced that impeachment proceedings were already underway, even before news of the so-called whistleblower complaint had surfaced.
On Wednesday, House Democrats laughed when House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who campaigned on the “Impeach 45” slogan, declared that she had “predicted” Trump’s impeachable conduct.
“Yes, I called for Trump’s impeachment early,” she crowed on the House floor.
So much for being “sad” and “solemn” about pursuing impeachment…
Democrats erupt in laughter and applause on the House floor shortly after Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters touts, “yes I called for Trump’s impeachment early”pic.twitter.com/sDRpH9Lb64
— Tommy Pigott (@TCPigott) December 18, 2019
Neither of the charges Democrats filed against Trump—“abuse of power” and “contempt of Congress”—relate to specific criminal conduct.
Democrats now claim that unlawful activity is not a precondition for impeachment, and have firmly established a chilling precedent for future chief executives that is likely to water down the process.
As George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley observed in testimony before the Judiciary Committee, a similar occurrence led to President Andrew Johnson’s 1868 impeachment in the wake of the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, when newly elected “Radical Republicans” went after the Southern Democrat by creating a “trap-door crime” to impeach him.
“It is not a model or an association that this committee should relish,” Turley said.
Lapdog Media
Although Pelosi nominally sought to tamp down the celebrations from her caucus, many in the liberal media took a victory lap on their behalf.
The Media Research Center reported that MSNBC host Rachel Maddow—who was one of the moderators in Democrats’ first primary debate—could not contain her glee.
“You are not asleep, this is not a dream. This is really happening. This is our life. This is our country and our time,” Maddow commenced.
Ignoring the defections of three Democrats in what otherwise was a party-line vote (with NeverTrump independent Justin Amash joining the Democrats), Maddow bizarrely suggested that the vote itself was a clear-cut mandate against Trump.
“The vote in the House of Representatives tonight to impeach the president was not close,” she deceptively asserted. “… These were not slim margins.”
Throughout the process, Democrats have depended on media lapdogs dutifully reporting on their constantly shifting narratives and objectives.
During the House Intelligence Committee’s secretive closed-door hearings, in which chairman Adam Schiff carefully vetted the witnesses he would trot before the public, Democrats relied on selective leaks to propel their case and omit any counter-evidence that would undermine the momentum they claimed to be building.
Schiff—the likely ringleader of the Ukraine conspiracy, who was exposed for colluding with the whistleblower in advance of the complaint—was spotted celebrating the fruition of his efforts at a fancy steakhouse on Tuesday as BizPac Review reported.
Adam Schiff and the entire democratic house intel committee were at a fancy restaurant last night drinking and cheering about the ‘impeachment.’
Now they’ll be on TV today saying what a somber and sad day in history this is…
These people disgust me.pic.twitter.com/jKKPUzgJzy
— Alex Bruesewitz (@alexbruesewitz) December 18, 2019
Warning Signs Ahead
But despite—or because of—the Left’s efforts to gaslight the public, Trump has continued to gain in popular support. Meanwhile approval for impeachment has noticeably receded, forcing even left-wing CNN to acknowledge Democrats’ losing effort.
The warning signs are clear, also, for Pelosi, who long claimed she would only proceed with impeachment on a bipartisan basis before backpedaling under party pressure.
The San Francisco congresswoman said that after having passed the articles, she may now withhold them from the GOP-led Senate until Democrats can argue more favorable terms than those they afforded the House minority.
That ploy—offering more evidence that Pelosi’s political imperative outweighs her supposed principles to hold Trump accountable for some perceived wrongdoing—are more likely to further erode her public standing.
Further denying due process to the president also could pose an unprecedented legal challenge if it is deemed to deny him of his right to a “speedy, public trial.”
Some have pointed to the fact that the court ruled against judicial review in the impeachment effort against President Richard Nixon as evidence that it is a “non-justiceable” political proceeding rather than a legal one.
But in the absence of an actual crime, the court may be called upon to clarify whether the impeachment provisions in articles 1 and 2 of the Constitution permit the House to invent its own standards.
Legal scholars including liberal Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz have said a recent court decision to review several of the subpoenas against the president might also undermine Democrats’ claim of “contempt of Congress.”
The Mueller Report, despite being written by Angry Democrats and Trump Haters, and with unlimited money behind it ($35,000,000), didn’t lay a glove on me. I DID NOTHING WRONG. If the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme Court. Not only……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 24, 2019