The question of whether Democrats should try to impeach Trump in 2027 (assuming they take the House) is a great question, but it’s a bit of a hijack from the thread about House races, so I made a new thread.
My take is that yes: they should impeach him.
Here’s why:
It’s the right thing to do. When a president goes this far out of pocket, impeachment is the remedy our Constitution allows. Congresspeople who are upholding their oath of office should do it.
It makes him more of a lame duck than he’ll already be. When he’s responding to impeachment proceedings, it ties him up and gives him less time to commit further outrages.
TACO. Trump always chickens out. When he’s actively being impeached, he’ll be a chicken, afraid of further outrages. He likes to act like an out-of-control toddler in full meltdown mode, but this is one of the ways to control him.
He’s less popular than ever before, and that’s a slide likely to continue. The cult isn’t going to last for a thousand years, it has to break at some point, and it’ll break when there’s the right pressure applied. Impeachment is one piece of the pressure.
Yes, it’ll make his diehards double-down in their support for him. But that’s a feature of opposing him. The only way to keep those fools from doubling down is to fail to oppose him at all, and that’s clearly not a winning strategy.
Yes, it could distract Democrats from taking positive positions. That’s a real concern. The solution, of course, is to walk and chew gum at the same time. Democrats need to impeach him, and also Democrats need to advance a positive agenda and go full Mamdani on publicizing it.
Yes, he probably won’t be convicted in the Senate. That’s okay: in 2028, the votes to keep a criminal in office can be a millstone around the neck of every senator who voted to acquit.
If he couldn’t be convicted in either of his two previous impeachment trials, given the appalling conduct which led to each, I can’t imagine what might lead to a conviction the third time. I’m afraid it would almost certainly be a wasted effort.
I agree. You don’t fight the good fight because you’re guaranteed to win. You fight the good fight because it’s the good fight.
If nothing else it demonstrates which cohort still believes in the rule of law and which does not. Surely some of these scumbags must realize how harshly history will judge them. They just don’t care.
But history will judge them. Facts are stubborn things.
This, but I’d put impeaching trump AFTER getting the government functioning again (as much as possible) and definitely PUBLICIZING what they’re doing, why, and how.
To reword the old public speaking guideline: “tell them what you’re going to do, do it, then tell them what you did.”
I think it’s obvious why impeaching trump has to be on the agenda but why it can’t be the primary item with the country collapsing around our ears. If there is a blue wave, voters will want to see changes that positively affect their lives. Seeing trump hang (metaphorically, of course) would just be a happy side benefit.
Not being a US citizen, and thus no real say: I would GO FOR IT!!
At the very least, the news coverage would be very negative. Trump would be (OK, “may be”) wary of talking in public - the less we hear his braying the better. It would be tremendously embarrassing to be the three-times impeached idiot, and should be career-killing to support him.
Let the circus begin.
(also, can you guys give some thought to quite a bunch of lickspittles and hangers-on who might also deserve a little impeachment action? A certain Supreme Court justice *cough* Thomas *cough* springs to mind.
I’m quite torn on this issue. One the one (Left) hand:
This is a compelling argument, and it upholds principles that I believe in.
On the other hand, in a realpolitik sense, I am concerned that the previous failed impeachment attempt ended up increasing Trump’s approval for his winning 2024 presidential campaign. And let’s be 100% clear: this impeachment attempt will fail due to spineless GOP senators just as it did last time. Trump and the GOP have been extremely successful in “working the refs,” as it were, painting the Democrats has having Trump Derangement Syndrome, such that these kinds of accountability efforts are immediately suspect, and not just among his hardcore supporters.
Now obviously Trump himself will not be on the ballot in 2028, but Trumpism definitely will be, J.D. Vance will be, possibly even a Trump child. So the questions become: will an obviously doomed impeachment effort help or hurt the GOP in the 2028 elections? And if it will help the GOP, is it still worth pursuing for the reason I quoted above?
Trump was impeached in 2019 for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress. In 2021, he was impeached for Incitement of Insurrection.
What, specifically, do you (the general you) think he would be charged with if he was to be impeached in 2027 or 2028? Abuse of Power certainly comes to my mind, especially relating to Iran. What else?
I think since his last impeachment, Trump’s mental status has declined to the point where he’s no longer capable of controlling what comes out of his mouth at all.
Which they absolutely must put forward — except that, with the Trump GOP still heading the Executive and having no veto-proof majority (*), it will be hard to see any positive changes actually happen in the next two years. And on the contrary some of the worst impacts of the Big Bullshit Bill were timed to only be visible after the midterm.
( * and even then, who says this being the Trump Age, he wouldn’t just order the Executive Branch to NOT obey or enforce that “because nobody knew before, I can do that”)
As mentioned earlier, they may first go for some other figure of the administration to test the waters. You really, really need 18-20 Republicans hard in the “oh f—- this guy” mood to fully succeed because I have no doubt there will be two or three Dems who’ll punk out at the last moment.
That said a good and proper impeachment threepeat where the crimes of THIS go-around are recorded and presented is something a huge share of D voters would be mighty ticked off if it did not happen. THAT would be the big “if so then I’ll just stay home in ‘28” issue for them.
How long do you think that’s going to take? I don’t think an impeachment of Trump in 2038 is going to have much impact. I’m 71 and I think plenty of the damage Trump has done in his second term won’t be fixed in my lifetime.
While I agree that Trump should be removed from any office ASAP, I’m afraid what his successor will be or do. Right now, that looks like the VP. Not much of a change, and less predictable. And the Speaker of the House moving up to the VP position is also incredibly scary.
Maybe it’s better to wait it out for 2 years while opposing him at every opportunity? Maybe???
If Trump is impeached during the next two years, the Speaker will be a Democrat.
And the Speaker doesn’t ‘move up’ to the VP position. If the President is removed from office, obviously the vice-president assumes that role. Then, as the new President, he would select a new VP, but the nominee must be confirmed by each House of Congress. Until those confirmations take place, the office is vacant.
IMO this is a fart in the wind either way. It will fail to have any useful direct consequences and will probably fail to push any useful message, but that will apply to 98% of what the next Congress does, so if Jeffries feels he needs to do it for internal coalition-management reasons (i.e. he’s getting yelled at by members angry that he won’t do their preferred One Weird Trick), fine by me.
If it were totally up to me, I’d reserve it for a circumstance where he was caught trying to ratfuck a Democratic presidential candidate. The first impeachment had little impact on Trump directly, but I think the Hunter Biden allegations might have seemed more salacious if the impeachment hadn’t prebutted them.
I’ll be 78 next month, and I basically agree with you.
I didn’t mean restore it to full operational condition, I mean do whatever can be done. Fix some flat tires, but I won’t live long enough to see the engine and the transmission overhauled and functioning again.