Remember those heady days of Trump impeachments past, when Maine Senator Susan Collins voted to acquit the president, stating he’d “learned a lesson”?
Good times.
Maybe somebody should get Senator Collins on record – STAT! It would appear Trump needs a refresher course.
To recap, Donald Trump was impeached on December 18, 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He becomes one of only three presidents in our nation’s history to enjoy that ignoble distinction, with the others being Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.
In Trump’s case, he was impeached after a whistleblower informed lawmakers that in a July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump threatened to withhold vital U.S. aid, unless Zelensky’s government agreed to launch an investigation into the activities of Hunter Biden, son of Trump’s then-political rival, Joe Biden.
The corruption and coverup involved in the case should have resulted in Trump’s removal from office, but faithless, spineless, cowardly Republican lawmakers saved the toad’s bacon, leaving him free to go on and commit other egregious acts, while in office.
Susan Collins furrows her brow in concern.
Because Trump is a barely functioning illiterate, who has never been forced to take responsibility for any of his wrongs, having been kept above water, first from his doting, equally corrupt father, then by the throng of mindless sycophants in Congress, we had to know this would happen again.
He’s made another “perfect call.”
With barely more than 2 weeks to go in office, damning audio has been released of an hour long call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
During the call, Trump and his attorneys covered all of QAmoron’s greatest hits: dead voters, shredded ballots, Dominion moving machines out of the area, or at least moving the insides of the machines out, etc…
Each of these preposterous theories have been debunked. There have been multiple recounts. The signatures have been audited. Everything has been done by the book and within the law.
An emotionally mature, intellectually stable adult would accept defeat with dignity and decorum. That, of course, does not describe Donald Trump, in any sense of the word.
In this latest show of illegality by soon-to-be-former President Trump, he literally pushed Raffensperger to manufacture enough votes to overturn Biden’s win in the state of Georgia.
“The people of Georgia are angry. The people in the country are angry,” Trump said in the call. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”
Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel, Ryan Germany, repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s nonsensical blathering, to no avail.
“Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong,” Raffensperger said at one point.
Then there’s this doozy from Captain Bone Spur:
“So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said. “Because we won the state.”
If you won the state, why are you asking to “find” nearly 12,000 votes, and even suggesting Raffensperger should “recalculate”?
Well, it’s because he knows he didn’t win and he is asking that a federal crime – election fraud – be committed on his behalf.
The full audio was released after Trump continued to threaten Raffensperger on Twitter. The immediate reaction across the country has been mixed. Trumpsters have hailed it as proof of Trump’s drive to have a free, fair election. People with IQs above room temperature see it as the criminal activity it is.
So what should come of this? The man is out of office in two weeks. No January 6 street protests from his adoring cultists or showboating from Trump-loyal lawmakers on the floor of the Senate is going to reverse the will of over 80 million American voters. Love it or hate it, President Biden is the very near future of our nation.
My thoughts? PROSECUTE HIM TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW!
If he’s allowed to skate by – again – this will set a precedent for future corrupt politicians, on either side of the aisle. Those who want to give Trump every pass possible do not know what they’re doing to the fabric of our nation.
Thankfully, I’m not alone in my belief that time constraints should not be a deterrent in seeing justice carried out. Several Democrat lawmakers (Of course… There are very few Republicans willing to do the right thing, when it comes to Trump.) have stepped up to demand a criminal probe. They’re asking Trump-appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray to open an investigation.
“As members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes,” Reps. Ted Lieu of California and Kathleen Rice of New York wrote in a letter to Wray on Monday. “We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the president.”
At the time of this writing, there has been no response from the director, but we can expect the calls to grow louder, and they should. I can’t imagine he let’s this go on until January 20, unanswered.
In their letter, Lieu and Rice allege, “The evidence of election fraud by Mr. Trump is now in broad daylight.”
“Given the more than ample factual predicate, we are making a criminal referral to you to open an investigation into Mr. Trump,” the lawmakers wrote.
They’re not completely alone, either.
But the recording of his conversation with Raffensperger has led to a more severe response from Trump’s Democratic opponents. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said Sunday that the president’s conduct was “impeachable,” while Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said it “merits nothing less than a criminal investigation.”
While I like where Ocasio-Cortez is going – not something you’ll hear me say often – I think it’s too late in the game for that, especially when he’s as good as out the door, already. Durbin, Lieu, and Rice are on the right track. There need to be consequences.
The only way this nation survives as a free republic is that the stench of Trump be erased from our nostrils. As I’ve said so often, we can survive bad government. A Biden term will surely be awful, but it will be familiar. It will be routine, and opposing voices will push back. I will be one of those voices.
What we cannot survive is cultism that elevates a corrupt and incompetent man to god-status, even at the expense of our laws, our standard of government, and the will of the people.
That is what Trump and his sycophants want. That is what will end us.
Don’t let them. Make an example of him. True justice demands nothing less.