The Corner

White House

House Democrats: We Won’t Rest Until Trump Is Stopped . . . Okay, Time for Recess

Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Elijah Cummings (D., Md.) in Washington, D.C., February 27, 2019. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

A point I forgot to include in today’s Morning Jolt:

After Robert Mueller completed his testimony yesterday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared in a press conference: “There’s a cone of silence in the White House that is engaging in a massive cover up of obstruction of justice.”

Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, declared, “Martin Luther King said something that I — is in my DNA and is still in my brain, particularly right now.  He said, ‘There comes a point when silence becomes betrayal.’ And we refuse to betray generations yet unborn and the American people.” (Hey, it’s nice to see a Congressional Democrats recognize the unborn in any context.)

Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, warned, “we face a time of great danger.  Richard Nixon said he thought that the President was a dictator.  He said, ‘If the President does it, that means it’s not illegal.’ President Trump echoed that yesterday.  He said, ‘Under Article II, I’, that is, he, ‘can do anything I want.’  That is a totalitarian picture, not a democratic picture.  The United States must be safe from this. A President who engages in crimes, repeated crimes, to cover up these unpatriotic and dictatorial actions and this cannot go on.”

And House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff added, “accepting campaign help from a foreign agent is disloyal to our country, unethical, and wrong. We cannot control what the Russians do. But we can decide what we do. We can — and must — decide that this centuries-old experiment we call America is worth cherishing.”

This just about the most serious series of charges that Congressional leaders can throw at a president: “Massive coverup.” “Betrayal.” “Great danger.” “Totalitarian.” “Unpatriotic.” “Dictatorial.” “Disloyal.” In their view, nothing less than the fate of America is at stake.

On Friday, the House will adjourn for summer recess for six weeks.

If you really believe that Trump is an “unpatriotic,” “totalitarian,” “disloyal,” “dictatorial” “great danger” who is “betraying” the country with a “massive coverup”… why are you going back home for the rest of the summer? Where’s your sense of urgency?  I can hear the argument that members need to go home and make the case for impeachment in their districts, but from the way the Democrats describe Trump, his menace is obvious. If the country really is in the grips of a dictatorial madman, why are you leaving Washington until September 9?

Most Popular

Elections

Trump’s Disgraceful Gambit

The Rudy Giuliani–led press conference at the RNC yesterday was the most outlandish and irresponsible performance ever by a group of lawyers representing a president of the United States. If Giuliani’s charge of a “national conspiracy” to produce fraudulent votes in Democratic cities around the country ... Read More
Elections

Trump’s Disgraceful Gambit

The Rudy Giuliani–led press conference at the RNC yesterday was the most outlandish and irresponsible performance ever by a group of lawyers representing a president of the United States. If Giuliani’s charge of a “national conspiracy” to produce fraudulent votes in Democratic cities around the country ... Read More

Why Democrats Are Winning the Suburbs

The election returned a mixed result. The American people elected Joe Biden president by far narrower margins than expected. Republicans will probably retain control of the Senate, despite having been vastly outspent. Most surprising, Democrats lost House seats in a year when they confidently predicted gains, ... Read More

Why Democrats Are Winning the Suburbs

The election returned a mixed result. The American people elected Joe Biden president by far narrower margins than expected. Republicans will probably retain control of the Senate, despite having been vastly outspent. Most surprising, Democrats lost House seats in a year when they confidently predicted gains, ... Read More
Law & the Courts

Stunning Findings on Campaign-Finance Law

You may think the Bill of Rights safeguards our liberties from the whims of public opinion. After all, as Justice Robert Jackson observed in the 1943 case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, “[t]he very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of ... Read More
Law & the Courts

Stunning Findings on Campaign-Finance Law

You may think the Bill of Rights safeguards our liberties from the whims of public opinion. After all, as Justice Robert Jackson observed in the 1943 case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, “[t]he very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of ... Read More