'Impeach': New York Times Editorial Board Says President Trump Left Congress With No Choice
The New York Times Editorial Board penned a succinct op-ed piece published Saturday backing the impeachment of President Donald Trump and condemning Republicans for subverting democracy.
The newspaper's editorial board of opinion journalists said Trump has left the defense of the U.S. Constitution, and the Republic as a whole, solely in the hands of the House of Representatives.
The New York Times opinion piece said it's "regrettable" the House moved so quickly with impeachment, but Trump's certainty to cheat in the upcoming election forced their hand. The board also said Democrats should consider if they would put aside their own partisanship if the president happened to be a member of their own party.
But ultimately, the Times board argues, the House must pass the two articles of impeachment next week -- abuse of power and obstruction of Congress -- because the country's framers explicitly warned of a president who "might betray his trust to foreign powers."
The Times notes Trump's refusal to cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry and his stonewalling of testimony from members of his administration has "violated the separation of powers." Trump has claimed "monarchical immunity that Congress cannot let stand."
"The framers of the Constitution understood that elections, and thus democracy, cannot function appropriately 'if a president was determined to cheat to win,' the Times writes, citing James Madison. "Trump has been committing arguably impeachable offenses since the moment he entered the Oval Office." Last week, former Obama White House Counsel Robert "Bob" Bauer made a similar argument that the Founding Fathers predicted "demagogues" just like Trump. In Bauer's piece, he noted that even former President Richard Nixon, who was also convinced of his opposition's bad faith, offered to cooperate under oath with the Judiciary Committee.
"By stonewalling as no previous president has, Donald Trump has left Congress with no choice but to press ahead to a Senate trial," the piece continues.
But the Times board asks both Republicans and Democrats to do a bit of soul-searching as they weigh the decision of whether or not to impeach a president for just the third time in the country's history.
"To resist the pull of partisanship, Republicans and Democrats alike ought to ask themselves the same question: Would they put up with a Democratic president using the power of the White House this way?"
The piece also singles out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham for publicly expressing zero interest in reviewing the facts and instead vowing to keep in lock-step with the desires of the White House. But the writers said they hope Trump will finally produce the defense he has so far failed to provide and demand sworn appearances by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser John Bolton to "exonerate" his Ukraine actions.
