So, articles of impeachment are happening. Two of them, anyway. Democrats may think they’ve got a winning strategy, but for what it’s worth, Ben Shapiro thinks their efforts are destined to blow up in their faces:
THREAD: The charges Democrats are leveling here are, on their face, laughably inadequate to support impeachment.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 10, 2019
First, they claim Trump acted to "obtain an improper personal benefit, while ignoring or injuring the national interest." They aren’t charging bribery, because this doesn’t fulfill the elements of bribery: they can’t show what the bribe was, or the intent to commit such a crime.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 10, 2019
So that means they’ve widened out the charge itself to include “ignoring or injuring the national interest,” which is far more general than the specific intent for bribery. Virtually every president could be charged with “ignoring or injuring the national interest.”
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 10, 2019
See, e.g., Barack Obama telling the Russians on hot mic that he has flexibility after the election, or Barack Obama's IRS targeting his political opponents.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 10, 2019
The second charge, obstruction, is even more absurd. There is literally NO legal grounds for obstruction, since every subpoena legally issued has been challenged in the courts, and Democrats have refused to wait for the outcome, charging ahead anyway.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 10, 2019
Even WaPo notes that Congress has never charged "obstruction of Congress" in the absence of "obstruction of justice," because there's another name for that: checks and balances. Only after the judiciary weighs in does obstruction of Congress become obstruction of justice.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 10, 2019
Recommended
This is empty, empty nonsense. And the Democrats know that it is. Which is why they are truly impeaching pre-emptively. They articulate clearly that if they don't impeach, Trump will steal the election.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 10, 2019
We're now set up for a 2020 election in which both sides will claim that a result they don't like is fundamentally illegitimate: Dems will claim Trump cheated and GOP will claim Dems abused power to drive down Trump via impeachment.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 10, 2019
The #ArticlesOfImpeachment are a joke. They are the legal analogue of a prosecutor redefining first-degree murder to include accidental death (robbing the crime of its vital intent component), and then going ahead and charging first-degree murder.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 10, 2019
Time will tell how this all winds up shaking out, but never underestimate the Democrats’ ability to shoot themselves in the foot.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member