Alan Grayson's new book, High Crimes, just came out this week. Grayson is a brilliant researcher and a witty, insightful writer. Alan wrote that he doesn't believe that Trump should be impeached for throwing paper towels at the devastated victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and telling them to "have a good time" nor should he be impeached because the bereaved widow of a dead U.S. soldier says that Trump told her that her husband "knew what he signed up for." Nor, wrote Grayson, should Trump be impeached because he has confessed that he’d like to date his daughter. "In sum, I don’t think that Donald Trump should be impeached because he is a putz-- quite possibly, the worst putz ever to hold any public office in the United States. He is our Idi Amin, our own Idiot Amin, minus the cannibalism. At least as far as we know. (But is there any doubt that if Mar-a-Lago did offer human flesh on the menu, Trump would tout it as the best, the very best human flesh ever available anywhere, absolutely primo human flesh, better than even what was for sale during the Siege of Leningrad?)" In the guest post below Alan explains why he does think Trump should and must be impeached and removed from office. Grayson recognizes a constitutional piñata when he sees one
BUT. I do believe that Donald Trump should be impeached-- for the numerous high crimes and misdemeanors that he has committed. Donald Trump should be impeached because, as Doonesbury once said of Richard Nixon, Trump is “Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!”Yes, yes, I understand that it’s tempting to say that Trump should be impeached because it seems as though an Evil Clown from a Stephen King novel has wandered into the White House. It’s tempting to say that Trump should be impeached because, as President, he is the WOAT (Worst of All Time).You don’t have to take my word for this. The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a nonpartisan organization of political scientists. After Donald Trump’s first year in office, a survey of the members of APSA named Donald J. Trump the Worst President of All Time. President Andrew Johnson, who was impeached and almost removed from office, ranked fifth-worst. President Richard Nixon, who resigned after the U.S. House Judiciary Committee voted for impeachment, ranked 12th worst. President Bill Clinton, who was impeached by the House and then (like Andrew Johnson) won the conviction vote in the Senate and remained in office, was ranked 13th best.So, yes, I understand the impulse to say that Trump should be impeached because he is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad President. But when it comes to the impeachment of Donald Trump, we can, and we should, be more specific than that. Donald Trump is impeachable because the Constitution of the United States says that he is, for the reasons stated therein. The U.S. Constitution says that the impeachable offenses are: (1) treason, (2) bribery, (3) “high crimes,” and (4) “misdemeanors.”Now I must concede that we have a President who will admit to nothing: “no collusion, no obstruction.” If Trump started to speak in Farsi, he would insist thereafter that there was “no confusion.” If he accidentally dropped a nuclear weapon on Philadelphia, he would maintain that there was “no destruction.” “No confusion, no destruction.”It doesn’t matter. In fact, we’ve had a lot of truly awful public officials who have, nevertheless, insisted that they were as pure as the driven snow. (Or, in Trump’s case, as pure as the orange glow.) It doesn’t matter, it hasn’t mattered, and it shouldn’t matter. It doesn’t take a confession to find someone guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. As you will see.In fact, our own Angry Creamsicle is the capo di tutti i capi (“boss of all the bosses”) when it comes to impeachable offenses. He is Benedict Donald. Historically, impeachable offenses fall into these nine categories:• Divided loyalty• Corruption• Obstruction of justice• Other abuse of power• Campaign misconduct• Sexual misconduct• Tax evasion• Conflicts of interest, and• Conduct unbecoming a public official.Particularly “bad hombres,” as Donald Trump would call them, have been guilty of two types of impeachable offenses on this list. In Trump’s case, you can find impeachable acts for all nine. Donald Trump literally is guilty of every impeachable offense.When a public official commits high crimes and misdemeanors (or, in Trump’s case, revels in them), what else are you going to do-- ignore them? Look the other way? Close your eyes, and hope that they disappear? For those of us old enough to experience object permanence, that just doesn’t work anymore.How does Donald Trump stack up against the other miscreants who have soiled American history? When you measure this Scalawag-in-Chief against all the other scalawags, does his scala wag the most? Is Trump’s political stench-- eau de Trump, his branded cologne-- as putrid as theirs? (Trump once tried to sell a Trump cologne, in a phallus-shaped bottle. The Chicago Tribune reported that it smelled like a “strip club.”) In sum, is this President unprecedented?Look into it, and you will find that Donald Trump has committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors that are as bad as, or worse than, every other official who has committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Therefore, he should be impeached and removed from office. Q.E.D. And I’ll go one step further. If you take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution-- as I did, as every Member of Congress has done-- then that’s how you should see it, too.
You can read all of High Crimes by purchasing it here at the link.
