The Independent reports tonight that 350 mental health professionals have endorsed a letter from three pre-eminent psychiatrists advising the House Judiciary Committee that President Trump is becoming more and more enraged and more dangerously deranged by the day because of the threat of impeachment. The hell of it is that it is unclear whether the three are counseling (1) “make nice and kiss his ass or he’ll blow us all up” or (2) “impeach and remove his ass before he blows us all up.” I have read the article three times, and I can’t tell. It sounds funny but it is deadly serious.
The psychiatrists are Yale Medical School Professor Dr Bandy Lee, George Washington University Professor Dr John Zinner, and former CIA profiler Dr Jerrold Post. The three obviously mean well and want to testify to the Impeachment Committee. Of course, everyone on the Judiciary Committee with an I.Q. in two digits or higher (all except Louis Gohmert) already knows that Trump is nuts — nay, stark raving mad — and becoming more dangerous by the day. The three psychiatrists state as follows:
[f]ailing to monitor or to understand the psychological aspects [of impeachment on Mr Trump], or discounting them, could lead to catastrophic outcomes. . . .
[W]e implore Congress to take these danger signs seriously and to constrain his destructive impulses. We and many others are available to give important relevant recommendations as well as to educate the public so that we can maximise our collective safety
Dr. Zinner explained:
Impeachment is the greatest threat to his self esteem that he’s experienced so far, and we’re very worried that his rage will be even more destructive than it’s been in the past
Dr. Lee, who previously offered to advise the impeachment investigatores stated that Trump:
. . . is ramping up his conspiracy theories” [and] showing a great deal of cruelty and vindictiveness [in his] accelerated, repetitive tweets [which she explained are signs that he is] doubling and a tripling down on his delusions . . .
I believe that they fit the pattern of delusions rather than just plain lies
Dr. Lee cites as an example Trump’s repeated assertion that his famous phone call of July 25 with President Zelensky of Ukraine was “perfect.” Dr. Lee, an expert in violence prevention, said that Trump is showing
definitive signs of severe pathology of someone who requires an advanced level of care . . . [and who] meets every criterion of lacking a rational decision making capacity
I’d urge you to read the article and of course the letter to be issued Thursday. I usually try to find something funny in everything but in this one I can’t, except . . . Except it is oddly comedic that one cannot tell if the three well-meaning, world-class psychiatrists are advocating impeachment or appeasement.
This octogenarian is a lawyer, not a shrink. If we try to guess if we are making him crazier by pressing the obvious case for impeaching, we are apt to guess wrong with apocolyptic consequences. Follow the rule of law . . . impeach, remove, and indict.