Pardon the cliché, but two wrongs don't make a right. After promising not to pursue a partisan impeachment of Donald Trump, Democrats rushed through a weak and partisan impeachment through the House of Representatives. The Republican-controlled Senate took the same approach to acquit Trump.
Although there were clearly problems with the actions from the House of Representatives, it is not the Senate's job to control the House. Regardless of the circumstances, the House impeached Trump. It was the Senate's job to hold a proper trial. This includes steps to ensure that Senators are properly informed before they vote on whether or not Trump should be removed from office.
Before I go any further, let me clarify something. I have not had the time to personally read up on all of the evidence. My information is almost exclusively coming from liberal media sources. For this reason, there is a distinct possibility that I overlooked key details.
One of the problems with the impeachment proceedings has been the Democrats inconsistent arguments to convince the public that Trump's actions were worthy of impeachment even though Trump's actions are very similar to the kinds of actions taken by the Democrats. For example, it has been established that Joe Biden also withheld Ukrainian aid to get what he wanted. The Democrats have relied on motive as a differentiator.
There were three things that the Democrats were relying on to justify removing Trump from office. The first was that Trump withheld aid to pressure the Ukrainians. The second was motive. The third was that these actions are grounds for removal.
The Democrats did a fairly good job of proving that first item. They were weak with the other two. I never saw any evidence presented regarding motive. Instead, I saw assumptions. The Senate didn't have everything that could be factors in voting, and they should have pursued these answers.
Even if they could have established motive, I still think this was lowering the standards for impeachment. This is perhaps why there were no witnesses called. Many Republicans knew that additional testimony wouldn't change their minds. The problem with this is that they should have voted to help less certain Senators make better informed decisions.
I also want to point out that three wrongs don't make a right. Removing a president from office is a serious action. You should be confident in a case before you vote to take that step. The Democrats were reliant on a motive that was never proven. Even if it's the Republicans' fault that they lack the information, they can't assume. That didn't stop every Democratic Senator from voting to remove Trump from office.
No comments:
Post a Comment