Impeachment: Something a tweet can鈥檛 stop
There’s unrest all over the world.
In the Catalonia region of Spain, there are hundreds of thousands of people in the streets – protesting for secession. They don’t want to be part of Spain, anymore.
In Lebanon, Iraq, Bolivia, Pakistan, Chili, and Hong Kong there are hundreds of thousands of people protesting — for a variety of reasons — against their government’s alleged encroachments.
There’s also a new kind of protest called “Extinction Rebellion,” which has people in cities gumming up the works as part of the resistance to local governments that fail to act directly on climate change.
Some of the protests around the world might be peaceful. While others have led to bloodshed, and, regrettably, even death.
Oh, we’ve had our long history of protesting. That’s in this country’s DNA since protest is how this country became a country. (You know. That unfair tax on tea thing)
So, In the United States, we protest, for sure.
When I worked as a young reporter in Columbus, Ohio (the state capital), I could be assured of covering at least one protest a week.
Some of those folks seemed to think of protest as a hobby.
They’d appear at a rally to abolish something. Then, the next week, they could easily reappear in support of the same thing.
It was all too predictable.
I vividly remember the Saturday morning when I showed up to cover an anti-apartheid rally.
It was curious to me why the white protesters and the black protesters gathered in distinctly individual groups.
Something that seemed to have belied that whole anti-apartheid thing altogether.
We don’t always have to take to the streets to show our utter disapproval for a government or even a president for that matter.
We also have our tried and true alternatives.
We can impeach a president if he or she gets out of line.
As of last Thursday, the wheels of impeachment were etched into the history of this nation.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to formally conduct an impeachment inquiry.
Most importantly, it will be conducted in public.
It no longer matters if President Trump and his always-Trumpers wring their hands and dab their moistened hankies on their soggy eyelashes.
Impeachment is now on full view of the American public.
It can’t be made to vanish with a tweet.
It’ll be fruitless calling career professionals “leftists,” “human scum” or “Never-Trumpers,” if those people testify in public — while they appear to have no apparent political inclinations.
As the precise contents of that fateful July 25th phone call between Trump and the president of Ukraine — Volodymyr Zelensky — are revealed, you can sense the mounting desperation.
Trump and his always-Trumpers are fighting hard to convince the American public that Trump wasn’t dangling armaments for the price of dirt on Joe Biden and his son. That he was only concerned about Ukraine’s willingness to rid itself of corruption.
“The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!” Trump tweeted just before the House voted 232-196 to formalize the impeachment inquiry.
Trump’s use of the term “Witch Hunt” can’t be overlooked.
He’s used it 301 times since 2011, to describe anything he doesn’t like. And recently, it’s become one of his favorite phrases.
The irony of his tweet, “The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History,” is that it posted on (of all days) Halloween when hunting witches is OK, I think.
Irony aside, Republicans are being painted into a corner by sticking to a president who is being proven daily to have thumbed his nose at propriety.
As evidence continues to mount that supports the alleged wrongdoings of that July 25th phone call, the months ahead could imperil the hopes Republicans have of recapturing control of the U.S. House.
And worse, it could put Republicans in jeopardy of losing control of the Senate.
But first, they have to try to put the brakes on a rapidly accelerating impeachment inquiry.
That won’t be easy.
They can’t seem to come up with talking points that stick.
“Witch Hunt” only works on Halloween.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20 year TV-news veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.