So the Republican defense of Donald Trump has come down to this: Everyone already knows he’s a shady guy who abuses the power of his office. So you definitely can’t impeach him for these indiscretions because that would be too obvious. Or something like that.
Yesterday on ABC’s This Week, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) launched the most risible defense of Donald Trump yet:
“There’s not really anything that the president said in that phone call that’s different than he says in public all the time. So is there some sort of abuse of power that rises to that threshold that is different than the American people have been hearing for three years? I don’t hear that.”
Uh huh.
This is a little like saying you can’t convict Jeffrey Dahmer because he invited the police chief over for a dinner party.
Oh, but Thornberry wasn’t done. He also glommed onto the current GOP talking point about Trump’s due process rights.
New York magazine:
“It is inappropriate for a president to ask a foreign leader to investigate a political rival,” Thornberry conceded. Nonetheless, he argued for acquittal. Leaning hard into Republican objections to the impeachment process, Thornberry argued that the entire impeachment proceeding is null and void, however damning the evidence may be. Batting away a question about his focus on “process,” Thornberry replied: “And process — you know, you all always want to say substance, not process. There’s a reason we let murderers and robbers and rapists go free when their due process rights have been violated.”
So Thornberry admits that what Trump did was wrong — but Trump is nevertheless the victim because … due process? For the record, Trump’s due process rights have not been violated. The way Republicans are talking you’d think he’s been locked in the Tower of London without a lawyer for the past two years.
And, as we all know, Donald Trump himself is not exactly a proponent of due process rights. Just ask the Central Park Five.
Republicans are quickly running out of excuses for Trump’s behavior. At some point they’re gonna just have to come clean and admit they don’t want to impeach and convict Trump because his followers are like the Borg — and not in a good way.
But maybe, just maybe, the future of our country is more important than any one Congress member’s career? Just a thought, guys.
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