# Trump on impeachment: 2008

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [December 19, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116 "2019-12-19T23:04:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116/1 "2019-12-19T23:04:55Z")

</div>

According to the editorial in today’s NY Times, in 2008, Trump argued that

> [@](#):
>
> President George W. Bush should have been impeached for lying about the reasons for the Iraq war, while at the same time rejecting the Republicans’ impeachment of Mr. Clinton for lying about sex as “nonsense,” done for something “totally unimportant.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2019, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116/2 "2019-12-20T07:19:55Z")

</div>

> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> According to the editorial in today’s NY Times, in 2008, Trump argued that …

[See it on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEQy-fAdHM8) in this clip that someone put up, at 0:00 to about 1:00

ETA: Wolf Blitzer interviews Trump. Trump praises Pelosi, says she should have impeached Bush for getting us into the war with lies, says Clinton was impeached for “Something totally unimportant”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2019, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116/3 "2019-12-20T07:33:35Z")

</div>

Yes, but that was before anyone was trying to impeach _Him_.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116/4 "2019-12-20T14:49:40Z")

</div>

In 2008 he also said Hillary Clinton would be a good president and Barack Obama is “a star”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2019, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116/5 "2019-12-20T16:22:04Z")

</div>

All that proves is that Trump just says what he thinks people want to hear at that particular moment.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2019, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116/6 "2019-12-20T17:04:12Z")

</div>

Right, Trump used to be a Democrat. And was so in 2008.

But I have no reason to believe he was any more sincere in his Democratic beliefs then, than he is with his Republican beliefs now. He’s a con man who tests the wind before seeing what will be best for HIM.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2019, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116/7 "2019-12-20T17:09:55Z")

</div>

“Are you allowed to impeach a president for gross incompetence?” Trump wrote on Twitter in June 2014.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2019, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116/8 "2019-12-20T17:11:24Z")

</div>

double post

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116/9 "2019-12-20T17:26:10Z")

</div>

Well, had a point. If moving us into a futile and expensive war isn’t impeachable, why would mere corruption be? A few tens of thousands of Ukranians are dying, but Iraq civilian casualties remain uncounted, somewhere north of one hundred thousand. Abu Ghraib would never have happened, if not for GeeDubya.

Truth, straight from the horse’s ass!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2019, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-on-impeachment-2008/845116/10 "2019-12-20T20:03:34Z")

</div>

> [@elucidator](#):
>
> Well, had a point. If moving us into a futile and expensive war isn’t impeachable, why would mere corruption be? A few tens of thousands of Ukranians are dying, but Iraq civilian casualties remain uncounted, somewhere north of one hundred thousand. Abu Ghraib would never have happened, if not for GeeDubya.
> 
> Truth, straight from the horse’s ass!

What Trump is accused of isn’t mere corruption. Mere corruption would be Trump taking bribes. Trump does that but that’s not what he’s being impeached for. He’s being impeached because he tried to use government power to influence the outcome of his own re-election.

I think there’s a good argument that this is the most serious crime a politician can commit. It’s a direct attack on our system of democracy in a way that corruption or a war is not.
