#78: We Can Shape the Way the Senate Approaches Impeachment

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A sideshow is a diverting event of incident. It is not necessarily trivial- it can be hugely consequential in itself, and you can be drawn to it daily. Trump’s visits to Dayton and El Paso after the mass shootings and the criticisms of his visits were a sideshow, as Americans confront gun violence. The show is when and whether Congress is going to pass universal background checks and ban assault weapons.

The ultimate passage of a resolution in the Pelosi led House to impeach Donald Trump is inevitable. Is it justifiable? Certainly. Those who doubt it should read Ambassador Bill Taylor’s public statement about Trump’s quid pro quo in Ukraine. However necessary, righteous, and possibly politically advantageous, forcing an impeachment trial in the Senate is still a sideshow. The Senate will neither summon the two-thirds vote to convict Trump nor convince him to resign. When the sideshow it is all over the greatest show on earth will still be ahead of us, the presidential election of November 3, 2020.

This is a good thing to remember, else the constitutionally necessary impeachment sideshow will overwhelm, and leave us insufficiently attendant to the election twelve months away. What have you got if you can enumerate sixteen awful Trump actions in a week, rather than twelve, unless you find out who is fighting each of them and how you can help? Worse, how funny does a parody of Trump have to be to be worth taking you away from the work of supporting candidates and finding votes? If you traffic in the new round of foul taunts of Trump, what kind of country are you aiming to make? If you shout “lock him up” at a baseball game, your fury is justified. But that doesn’t classify the crowd chants as effective political action. The point is, we are distractible.

The evidence against Trump has been further strengthened by the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. Lieutenant Colonel Vindman was on the Trump call, and concluded immediately that it was wrong for the President of the United States to ask another country to investigate his political opponent.

What can we do to make certain that all of the Trump disclosures are not an election distraction but an election attraction? Under this scenario, impeachment and a Senate trial that does not lead to conviction will make Trump’s malfeasance clear, thus motivating independent voters to make the right choice in November. With this approach, our election and impeachment strategies are integrated.

First, as Speaker Pelosi is setting out to do, we can respond to the bogus due process claims of House Republicans. Steve Scalise and 23 other Republicans stormed the hearing room where closed door depositions were being conducted. They failed to helpfully mention that 45 of their Republican colleagues are on the three relevant committees and are full participants in the information gathering process. Pelosi’s next set of actions will further formalize the inquiry and outline its processes. 

The Senate has already shown signs of being more measured in the face of the frenetic responses of McCarthy, Scalise and the House Republicans. Senators from both sides have long treasured their six-year terms. They have maintained that longer terms make it easier to deliberate carefully, communicate civilly and not get swept away by the news cycle. Hardly any of them is eager to draw a Trump tweet, but unless they are up for election in 2020 (as are Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, and Cory Gardner) they have some insulation from retribution.

If eight or so Republican Senators can help maintain the Senate’s equilibrium, the trial will be about the substance of the claims against Trump, and all process issues and useless claims of witch hunts will be behind it. It is this climate we depend upon in order to have the trial set the frame for the November elections.

We need to depend upon eight Senate Republicans to defend the institution and the Constitution, whether or not each of them votes to find Trump guilty.

Richard Burr of North Carolina has been highlighted in recent missives. He is the force behind the Senate Intelligence Committee issuing a respected bipartisan report documenting the Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

As some Senate Republicans grumble about Richard Burr, Roy Blunt of Missouri has backed him up every step of the way. If you aren’t doing something exactly the way Donald Trump would want you to do it is good to have support.

Susan Collins of Maine is an awful position. Even though she cast a key vote to save the Affordable Care Act, Maine voters were looking for a lot more distance from Trump than she has delivered. Being up for election in November, 2020 means all of her actions during any trial will be under huge scrutiny, and voters in Maine will be expecting her to demonstrate her openness to the evidence.

Similarly, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is expected by resisters to be open to conviction. However, since we aren’t going to get to 23 Republican votes, it is nearly as important that she makes it a healthy process where not just Democrats are asking the hard questions.

Mitt Romney of Utah is in the enviable position of not having to genuflect to Trump ever. After getting as far as he could from his roots as he could when he ran for President, he’s now emulating his dad George Romney, who was the moderate Republican governor of Michigan. George Romney was steely and would have had Trump’s con figured out in a second. Mitt Romney’s refusal to downplay Trump’s actions in the Ukraine is very helpful to other Senators.

Twice recently, John Thune of South Dakota has stepped up. He called the evidence from the Ukraine testimony “not a good picture” and then called Lieutenant Colonel Vindman a patriot. As #2 in the elected leadership behind Mitch McConnell, Thune is key to setting a tone.

Ben Sasse of Nebraska has been a pointed and even eloquent critic of the President, most recently on the betrayal of the Kurds and on Trump’s musings about China investigating Joe Biden.

There are at least two Senators who may end up being a voice for fair-minded review of Trump. Of all people, Marco Rubio is one. He has never gotten over Trump’s abuse of him during the campaign. He has not given up on the idea of being president and would not mind coming across as principled, as long as that doesn’t make Trump very, very angry.

Another Senator who doesn’t mind taking a contrary position in order to protect the institution is John Kennedy of Louisiana, who likes the microphone and has blocked Trump nominees for the federal bench.

Obviously, the motivations of the eight vary, depending on the depth of their concerns about their own elections, and the extent to which they feel the president is endangering the country. Our objective is to make them even more motivated. We know that our sought outcome in November 2020 will be influenced by the nature of the Senate trial, so let’s do these three things now:

1) Make John Thune a Project
	Senator John Thune of South Dakota has rarely received our attention. Since he is a leader of the Republican caucus, he is unlikely to get out in front of Mitch McConnell. However, he called Ambassador William Taylor’s testimony “not a good picture.” That was an intentional signal that at least some Republican Senators intend to review the evidence after Lindsay Graham gets done with spit wads. At this point, Senator Thune’s email system will accept comments from those of us who are not South-Dakotans. You could tell Senator Thune that as you are watching how the country is doing in the face of political battles it was refreshing to see him to speak about the evidence. If emailing doesn’t work for you, call his office at 202-224-3121.
2) Finally Find Warm Words for Mitt Romney
	There are resisters who have never found much good to think or say about Mitt Romney. But it is time to recognize and respond to what happened these past weeks. Mitt Romney has just cast himself as the number one Senate Republican critic of the Trump-Guiliani Ukraine adventure. Romney is not muting his words, and he is not going away. He is willing to put himself in an uncomfortable position with some of his colleagues from now to the end of the impeachment process. Please call Mitt Romney’s office in Salt Lake City at 801-524-4380. Tell his staff to tell Mitt that he is right about the Ukrainian quid pro quo being wrong, and that you are grateful for him standing up.
3) Secure the Democratic Majority
	Writing and calling Republican Senators is important. It’s proven that they are influenced by national public sentiment, so why not make that sentiment known, again and again? Susan Collins is a hardworking Senator, but she has been insufficiently influenced by our collective suasions. She has had all too few instances of differing with her colleagues in the moments that matter most. Early on in Trump’s term, she had to make a tough decision on whether to more openly oppose the unacceptable positions of an awful man on issues of human and social welfare to which she has been deeply committed. It is fair for us to now to say that she took the wrong path, and to send an early check to her very promising opponent, Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon. Here’s where and how to help her, since we know that early money is like yeast.

Just over a year from today we will see this person who is an enormous burden on our country fall away from power. What an unsurpassed joy that will bring. Then, together and with new leaders we will get down to the business of restoring our democracy.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#77: We Know Exactly What to Do to Win

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We are doing this all together. None of our progress is by accident. We are in the best position to end this awful presidency no later than November 3, 2020 than at any time since this sorry chapter began. Certainly, we are fortunate to be able to honor the elected officials and the leaders and lawyers of the resistance. But, this movement is so strong and unrelenting not just because of them but due to the millions of people who have stood against Donald Trump from the beginning, making it a part of their life’s work.

Our candidates are strong. The Tuesday night debate again demonstrated their passions and their priorities. We have a few things for some of them to work on, but the fact that we are still a long way from deciding who it will be is a good thing, not a bad thing. Not a single primary vote has been cast. What unites us is far greater than what divides us, and we will narrow our differences.

There are those who understandably are so wounded by nearly three years of the Trump presidency that they can’t quite let themselves believe that we have arrived at this extremely promising point. Especially since we lost before, there is no spirited debate, no poll, no court decision, no new disclosure, and no impeachment inquiry that will bring them any peace.

To the extent that any of us thus afflicted can conquer it, we are more likely to attend to the work of resisting every day. What we are called upon to do will continue to change, because damning disclosures of Trump’s actions will continue, and the sordid will need to be sorted. The basics are there. We already know how to win this election, because it is exactly how we took back the House in 2018. Register voters, get support from such excellent organizations as Rock the Vote. Fight voter suppression, under the leadership of the Wagner Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and others. Persuade independents in every way we can, including sending them postcards through Tony the Democrat and let Swing Left and others support strong candidates and guide us to promising races.

For a long time, there was a debate over whether Donald Trump was crazy like a fox. Under this school of thought, his daily seizing of the news cycle was excellent tactically, since it easily distracted the media from the in-depth reporting that might illuminate mean spirited policies and misdeeds. Trump craves attention, and for the first two years of his presidency he could turn on Fox News at any time of the day and get his dopamine rush. It put us on defense, in a continuous response cycle on whatever he tweeted or executive order he announced.

The debate has been resolved. Donald Trump is not sly or cunning. We don’t need to figure out his daily or weekly strategy and respond accordingly. Instead, more simply, we need to understand what a winning hand includes, and continue to play that hand. Donald Trump has no compass, no beliefs, and (importantly) no strategy. He has no long term planned course of action. As he gets himself deeper in a hole, he has provided a shovel for Rudy Guiliani, who just keeps digging away.

The cheering has stopped. He no longer gets comfort from turning on the television. All there is for Donald Trump right now is unfavorable federal court decisions, escaped Isis prisoners, betrayal of the Kurds, and the looming reality that we will find out about his tax returns. John Bolton, Jim Mattis, Rex Tillerson, Nikki Haley, Colin Powell and Mitt Romney are all jabbing away, and some of those were the people who once had good things to say about him. Trump calls Mitch McConnell daily for the little solace that is available and frets about the loyalty of Senate Republicans, whom he has outraged over the Kurds.

The untruths of the past are catching up. No one with a pulse believes that Donald Trump was on a worldwide quest to end corruption when he called Kiev. In two weeks, the shift toward an impeachment inquiry by independent voters has been nearly twenty percent. 70% of independents and 40% of Republicans think it is wrong for a President to have called Ukranian leader Zelensky to talk about Biden. When polls catch up to events, the public’s disapproval of his betrayal of the Kurds will be even higher.

Each morning, Donald Trump sees that Nancy Pelosi has captured an advantage and is pressing forward. Pelosi understands the mechanics of governance, the demands of the Constitution and takes advantage of trump's lack of knowledge, his petulance, and his love for odd, debunked conspiracy theories. She knows that we have the upper hand and has figured out how to keep it.  She fully understands what we have to say to independent voters outside of reminding them whom we would replace.

When we follow Pelosi’s guidance (as we did in taking back the House) voters know we are the people that make certain that Americans have health care and are not denied it because of pre-existing conditions. They know we recognize the enormous threat of climate change and will re-join the Paris Accords and become an international leader forging aggressive climate solutions. To help pay for government, we will include among the taxed the companies and people who have the most money. We will maintain strong global alliances and will never betray those who have stood in harms’ way on our behalf. 

This is where some of our candidates need a little help. However far we expand upon these positions, we must treat these tenets as our fundamental deal with the American voter, who will stay with us as long as they and we remember that this is where we stand. This is the election where we take back America, where we redefine its promise, and where we bring people along with us who have not always been with us. Our current positions on health care, the environment, gun violence, reproductive freedom, discrimination and America’s global positions are majority positions right now, today. 

Intellectual intensity and clarity are valuable, so Elizabeth Warren is being rewarded in polling for making additional distinct, bold proposals. There’s no automatic foul in advancing a Medicare for All proposal that Americans do not favor over the various dramatic moves toward universal coverage that voters do favor. But by a certain point it is a foul to lecture over and over again to Americans about what they should want without displaying any indication that one has listened or heard any of their thoughts on why they don’t agree. Even if we win 55 Senate seats, the votes for outlawing private health insurance are not close to materializing. What instead is in our grasp is a dramatic expansion of the public option that Barack Obama developed. Elizabeth Warren, if you want to be a leading candidate, tell us what you plan to say to voters who do not support Medicare for All, beyond your insistence that you are right and they are wrong.

After the debate, it seems likely that Pete Buttigieg will join Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the first tier of candidates. Of Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke, and Kamala Harris, perhaps one will find a way to climb out of the second tier. Anyone rooting for that outcome for any of the four should send assistance soon. It is hard to see that happening for Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer, and Julian Castro, who was in the unenviable position of answering Anderson Cooper’s final “Who is your unlikely friend?” question first and couldn’t immediately think of one. And what are we going to do with Steve Bullock and Michael Bennett?

While we are narrowing our field, we can take heart that in the first month of their presidency, one of these candidates will, by executive order, re-enter our country into the Paris Climate Accords and otherwise set about to restore the presidency. In the meantime, let’s do what we can to lessen Trump’s damage in each of these three instances:

1) Remembering the Kurds
	It wasn’t just the morally forgetful Donald Trump who owed loyalty to the Kurds. It is the rest of us, and the obligation is ongoing. Unfortunately, what is ours to do now is make certain food, shelter and medical care is available as Kurds flee for their lives. Mercy Corps has an outstanding record of helping the Kurds in Syria and in Northern Iraq, where many driven out by Erdogan will seek shelter. We need to find ways to help Mercy Corps and make certain our friends do as well.
2) Building on a Lands Protection Victory
	As these missives have stressed in the past, Trump’s Interior Department has been seeking to decommission millions of acres of preserved public lands in Utah so that they can be accessed by mining companies. Interior moved to cut 85% of Bears’ Ears National Monument and 50% of Grand Staircase-Escalante. The litigation to block this action has been carried by Earth Justice. The Federal Judge has recently refused to dismiss the environmentalist’s claims. This gives new hope that we can win this case or stretch it out until we get a Democratic president. Help is on the way. In the meantime, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and its Rural Utah Project are fighting for and finding new friends across Southern Utah. Sign up for their regular reports and keep an eye on what is the single most critical public lands dispute between Trump and environmentalists.
3) Thanking Republican Senators!
	At long last, after three years of Republican denial regarding Russia’s election interference, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee have joined in assuring that the monumental evidence on this interference be released and confirmed. The new bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee report proves that Trump’s reactions to the Mueller findings are lies.  Importantly, it shows that indispensable bi partisan work can be done even when the Senate is nearing total dysfunction. For this, we have to thank Committee chair Richard Burr, ranking Democrat Mark Warner and such Republicans as Missouri’s Roy Blunt, who helped protect Burr from criticism within the Senate Republican caucus. It’s time to spread the word on this under-publicized report and to personally thank Roy Blunt. Give his staff a quick call at 202-224-5721 and thank him for handling this report in a bi-partisan fashion.

If all of this testimony about the Ukraine and the sorry stories about the Kurds are beating you down, you have to get back up now. Putting our country back together is a magnificent obsession, and there’s a tremendous amount of work to be done.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington

#76: Make Certain Doing the Right Thing Turns Out the Right Way

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Even two weeks is a very long time when Donald Trump is president. So, by mid-September you may have let your senses dull. As much as there were separate promising fronts in slowing and ultimately ending Trump’s abuse of America, the resistance may have seemed a bit stalled. The committee investigations underway since the release of the Mueller report were impeded by Trump preventing Don McGahn and others from testifying. The multiple efforts to get Trump’s tax returns were still out there and still very promising, but with uncertain timing. There was nothing to do but register voters, fight voter suppression, persuade independents and support strong candidates. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Then came the whistleblower’s complaint and with it a level of previously unreached clarity. In no way is this huge revelation about a single “perfect” telephone call. An American president, his personal lawyer, and his State Department used multiple tactics overall several months to induce a small, extremely vulnerable foreign nation to do Donald Trump’s personal political bidding. This included not only the freezing of critical military aid but the recall of the American ambassador. It is an array of impeachable acts that disgrace the Presidency. These acts would outrage Lindsay Graham if Lindsay Graham still existed in his previous human form.

The whistleblower complaint itself should be required reading for every American. There are multiple excellent analyses off what is unacceptable and why it is unacceptable. Importantly, for most of us these disclosures resolve an impassioned, hugely consequential and well-articulated debate between those of us who had not been ready to move forward with an impeachment inquiry and those of us who insisted upon it.

This missive was resolutely in the first camp, viewing moving toward impeachment as a blind alley, with the Senate virtually certain to acquit and with Mitch McConnell being handed a megaphone. Until now, this missive found unpersuasive the argument that justice demands impeachment, since justice is not clearly and automatically served by acquittal. Moreover, since as many as 65% of voters had indicated that they didn’t want impeachment, moving forward seemed like Democrats would be sustaining a self-inflicted wound that might be unhealed on November 3, 2020.

There are those that still feel that way and express those cautions, most notably David Brooks, who is wrong on this matter but undeserving of the resultant enmity. But everything has changed with the Ukraine disclosures. The argument that we must pursue the impeachment inquiry is the winner for two reasons. First, these particular non-Presidential acts are so out of bounds that to ignore them would cause poor James Madison to spin in his grave. One cannot be blind to the Constitution and then count on it to remain the unsurpassed guide to our 230-year experiment in self-governance. It was Trump and Giuliani who removed our alternative, not us.

Second, since we are most likely by far to settle this once and for all on November 3, 2020, it is still fair to ask what additional risk we are taking on in our obsession with beating Trump at the ballot box. The amount of risk depends in large measure on how the inquiry and any subsequent steps are handled. Thus far, we have benefited because Nancy Pelosi has demonstrated a reluctance to impeach. In part because of her cautious approach, a new CBS news poll shows that 55% of voters (including 23% of Republicans and 49% of Independents) approve of the inquiry. 

It wouldn’t be overly optimistic to expect another bit of news. Actually, there may be several bits. With such huge changes in the last two weeks, why assume the gathering of information regarding Trump misdeeds is complete? It is not out of the question that someone will reveal additional damaging charges about the Ukraine, or tax fraud, or conversations with Putin, or Kim Jong Un, or Mohammed Bin Salman, or any other people that Trump happens to call.

In pursuing the impeachment inquiry, we have done the right thing. However, let’s remember the right thing doesn’t automatically turn out the right way, and it’s up to us to make certain it does. Our most likely outcome in going down this path is that impeachment processes will cause an additional Trump slide which would lessen his chances of re-election still further. Our biggest danger is that we will go about the process so carelessly that independent voters will become more tired or angry with us than they are with Trump. An advantage in securing the right outcome is that the American people rightly think that Trump is an unreformed teller of untruths. It makes it difficult for him to provide even the slightest shred of exculpatory information about the “perfect call.”

Doing the right thing does not mean getting caught in social media fantasies. Barring some huge additional disclosure that stomps on the Constitution, there is no chance that 20 Republicans will vote for conviction, and Democrats Doug Jones of Alabama and Joe Manchin of West Virginia may not either. Former Senator Jeff Flake’s comment that 35 Republican Senators would vote for conviction if there was a secret ballot is worth nothing, because there is zero chance the Senate would change its rules to provide for a secret ballot. 

For Republican Senators, the fact that 2020 is an election year is hugely consequential. Nixon was impeached during the second year of his second term. This time around, there would be no time for Republicans to recover from a conviction vote. Thus, Trump aligned voters would walk away in November, and elections even in red states would be carnage for Republicans. 

Absent major new disclosures, we won’t get the votes in the Senate. If we don’t, we can take our resultant free time to underscore the Democratic agenda that was so successful in the Congressional elections of 2018. This includes universal health care, with full protection for those with pre-existing conditions; recognition of climate change and development of robust actions to decrease its threats; and, restoration of global alliances that have kept our country strong. 

Now is still the time to be sorting out our candidates. We should be expecting them to refrain from inappropriately drawing blood from each other, while still demonstrating their differences. We should expect them to act like they are all in the same party. We should want her or him to appear on the electoral horizon as someone who is president of the whole country and who will restore American promise one step at a time.

And, taking advantage of our increased momentum, we should do these three things: 

1) Keep Richard Burr and Mark Warner Heading in the Right Direction
	Having Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr work closely with Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Committee is an under-recognized advantage for justice seekers. Burr is not error-free, and he is not showy, but he is definitely on the varsity compared to his House Republican counterpart Devin Nunes. To almost no attention, Burr and Warner have already held a closed hearing about the whistleblower process with Joseph Maguire, Acting Director of National Intelligence. If the impeachment issue gets to the Senate, the Burr/Warner relationship will be key to forging a deliberative process.  It’s time to call Richard Burr at 202-224-3154 and thank him for his evenhanded approach to the whistleblower complaint.
2) Remember That Smaller Advocacy Organizations Go to Court
	A federal judge has permanently rejected a Trump administration policy seeking to ignore the long time “Flores” protections which requires detained families to be released in twenty days. Though this ruling will be appealed, it is a major step in protecting families of undocumented detainees. This was one of three favorable immigration rulings on the same day.  Notable in the Flores case is the involvement of the National Center for Youth Law, which for years has been a smaller, stalwart organization working on foster care and youth homelessness, among other challenges. Their increased involvement in the rights of kids under immigration law is a valuable step and should be supported.
3) Boost Stacey Abrams’ Schemes
	Stacey Abrams is tired of voter suppression, which is a big problem in at least a dozen states, and which notably cost her the governorship of Georgia. There are a lot of Democrats who would like Stacey to run for one of the two open Georgia Senate seats, but now she is fully focused on Fair Fight, the best new entrant battling the suppression that has gone on far too long. Financial support would be terrific. If you aren’t able to do that right now, sign up for Stacey’s suppression alerts and 50-state campaign so you will know what you and all of us can do to help.

Our country has massive imperfections. Some have been fielding the theory that the change that has besmirched us during the last three years is our future writ large. It’s not. Not now, not ever. After we get this man out of office we will put ourselves and our country back together again one large and glorious step at a time.

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington