In a normal time, with normal politics, with two political parties that cared about the rule of law, the Constitution, and national security, Republican leaders would have walked to the White House this week to tell Trump to resign. The impeachment hearings testimony has been that devastating to Trump and his enablers. Instead, we have this from The Washington Post:
A group of Republican senators and senior White House officials met privately Thursday to map out a strategy for a potential impeachment trial of President Trump, including proceedings in the Senate that could be limited to about two weeks, according to multiple officials familiar with the talks.
Republican Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Ron Johnson (Wis.), John Neely Kennedy (La.), Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) met with White House counsel Pat Cipollone, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, senior adviser Jared Kushner, and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, according to the officials, some of whom requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.
They just want to get it over with. Trump trying to strong-arm a foreign government into smearing a political opponent to help him win an election is one of the most egregious abuses of power in American history. And it also makes clear that Trump welcomed the offer of just such help from a different foreign government to help him win election in the first place. The Trump/Ukraine scandal is the Trump/Russia scandal.
But it appears that Democrats are going to wrap up these House hearings without forcing testimony from the Trump minions who are flouting subpoenas. It appears that Democrats are going to wrap up these House hearings without getting access to the full Trump transcripts that have been secured from view in a classified-access safe. It appears that Democrats are going to wrap up these House hearings without even trying to get the full Mueller report. Hopefully, these appearances are wrong.
If what we have seen, damning as it has been, is the bulk of the House investigation, impeachment will die a quick, useless death in the Senate. And Trump will know that he can get away with anything. And all the GOP conspiracy theorists will have the full weight and power of an unhindered unitary executive, through the machinations of Trump’s fixer, Attorney General Bill Barr, to persecute any and all Trump political opponents by any and all means. And they will be free to use any and all means to ensure that Trump isn’t voted out of office next year.
Democrats can’t limit investigations in the House, because there won’t be any investigations in the Senate. Democrats can’t fail to follow the facts, and they’ve only scratched the surface of the facts. This is an existential crisis for the republic. This is the moment. And unless the polls already are moving so strongly in favor of Trump’s removal from office that these unscrupulously debased Republicans feel they have no other option, the republic will fall.