President Donald J. Trump acknowledges applause as he is welcomed to the International Union of Operating Engineers International Training and Education Center Wednesday, April 10, 2019, in Crosby, Texas. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
At The American Conservative, Pat Buchanan explains that House Democrats, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi in particular, are caught in a bit of a trap concerning impeachment of the president. There is no evidence whatsoever to base an impeachment on, but the party’s base is so keen on an attempt that Pelosi must appease them or assert her power to quiet them.
The President has decided he will not provide the rope for his own hanging, and is refusing to cooperate with Democrats, leaving them with little to base any further actions on. Pat predicts Pelosi’s party could turn against her if she can’t find a way forward. He writes (abridged):
The Mueller investigation found that neither Trump nor anyone in his campaign colluded with the Russians in 2016. Yet that exoneration is insufficient for the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler. He wants public hearings with present and past White House aides under oath to put on a show trial for a national TV audience.
The euphemism for this swarm attack is “Congressional oversight of the executive.” And Trump is not wrong to see in it a conspiracy to bring down his presidency and impeach and remove him.
And if Trump believes, not without reason, that Pelosi’s caucus is out to kill his presidency, should he cooperate with the co-conspirators or use all of the actual and latent powers of his office to repel them?
For if Trump continues to defy subpoenas and denounce those who issue them, and Pelosi cannot deliver on the Democrats’ agenda, the louder will be the clamor of the Democratic base to remove Trump. At some point, Pelosi will have to go along or lose control of her rebellious caucus.
Pelosi and her leadership in the House, it is said, do not want impeachment. They see it as a dead end. And understandably so.
For if the House holds hearings and fails to impeach, Democrats would be seen as impotent. And if they did impeach the president and the Senate swiftly acquitted him, House Democrats would be seen a having wasted their two years, only to make Trump a political martyr.
The left and its media allies are demanding more subpoenas, and Trump is growing more defiant. And if Pelosi continues to argue that impeachment is not justified now, the anti-Trump sentiment in her party could turn against her.
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