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Nadler has done more than any other senior Democrat in talking about the “I” word and making the case to the public for moving forward with hearings — the job of opposition leaders in these historic moments.
It is not clear that Robert Mueller’s testimony before the House is the reason the impeachment process has accelerated. While the substance of Mueller’s presentation was devastating, just like the written report, Trump himself has been the driving force in energizing Democrats to take a stand.
Trump has continued to do more than anyone else to maintain the political momentum necessary to prevent Democrats from putting the impeachment option aside. While the notion of self-impeachment is silly, it is true that Trump’s own egregious actions forced Democrats to continue thinking about the kinds of dramatic steps that might be necessary to contain this runaway presidency.
The worse that the President behaves, and the clearer the real world impact of his actions becomes, the easier it will be for Democrats to go on record saying that obstructing justice in a serious investigation is unacceptable. He tried, it would seem based on the Mueller report, to stifle the investigators in ways that President Richard Nixon would never have imagined possible.
We are still far away from that kind of vote. The fears that Pelosi has about a backlash to impeachment in moderate districts are very real and have not disappeared. Until she has the entire Democratic Caucus behind her, she will likely be reluctant to give her full support.
Trump, however, keeps making it difficult to just say no. His presidency is off the rails, and he is playing with a fire of racism, nativism and social division that is dangerous — if not deadly. His rhetoric keeps getting more explosive as the election heats up. His retweet about the Clintons takes us into new “unprecedented” territory about just how far he will go.
Trump will only get worse, not better. Those who keep waiting for a “turning point” to normalcy are just not paying attention. The more heated that the 2020 campaign becomes, the more aggressive he will be. Every pillar of his rhetorical arsenal — embracing nativism, demanding investigations and spreading conspiracy theories, dismissing law and order, and character assassination — will remain front and center. With each swipe at this opponents, he will keep giving Democrats more fodder to take dramatic action to, at a minimum, go on record about why this kind of use of presidential power is not acceptable.
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