The Hole in the Impeachment Case

Contact Your Elected Officials

Thought experiment No. 1: Suppose Bob Muellerโ€™s probe actually proves that Donald Trump is under Vladimir Putinโ€™s thumb. Fill in the rest of the blanks with your favorite corruption fantasy: The Kremlin has video of the mogul-turned-president debauching himself in a Moscow hotel; the Kremlin has a bulging file of real-estate transfers through which Trump laundered racketeering proceeds for Putinโ€™s favored mobsters and oligarchs; or Trump is recorded cutting a deal to drop Obama-era sanctions against Putinโ€™s regime if Russian spies hack Democratic accounts.

Thought experiment No. 2: Adam Schiff is not a demagogue. (Remember, this is fantasy.) At the very first televised hearing, when he alleged that President Trump told Ukrainian president Zelensky, โ€œI want you to make up dirt on my political opponent . . . lots of it,โ€ Schiff was not defrauding the public. Instead, impeachmentโ€™s Inspector Clouseau can actually prove that Trump was asking a foreign government to manufacture out of whole cloth evidence that Vice President Biden and his son were cashing in on the formerโ€™s political influence (as opposed to asking that Ukraine look into an arrangement so objectively sleazy that the Obama administration itself agitated over what to do about it).

What do these two scenarios have in common, besides being fictional? Answer: If either of them were real, weโ€™d already be talking about President Penceโ€™s upcoming State of the Union address.

This is the point that gets lost in all the endless chatter over impeachment strategy and procedure. Everything that is happening owes to the fact that we do not have an offense sufficiently grave for invocation of the Constitutionโ€™s nuclear option. If we had one, the machinations and the posturing would be unnecessary โ€” even ridiculous.

Why are we talking about how Chairman Schiff, Speaker Pelosi, and House Democrats rushed through the impeachment inquiry without making a real effort to interview key witnesses?

Why was the Democratsโ€™ impeachment gambit driven by the election calendar rather than the nature of the presidentโ€™s offense? Why were the timing of hearings and the unreasonable limits imposed on Republicansโ€™ ability to call witnesses dictated by the frantic rush to get done before Christmas recess โ€” to the point that Democrats cynically vacated a subpoena theyโ€™d served on a relevant administration witness, fearing a few weeks of court battles that they might lose?

Why did Democrats grope from week to week in a struggle over what to call the misconduct they accused the president of committing โ€“ campaign finance, extortion, quid pro quo, bribery? How did they end up with an amorphous โ€œabuse of powerโ€ case? How did they conclude that an administration that goes to court rather than instantly surrendering potentially privileged information commits obstruction?

Why such tedious recriminations over adoption of Senate procedures that were approved by a 100โ€“0 vote the last time there was an impeachment trial? Why all the kvetching over whether witnesses will be called when those procedures provide for the calling of witnesses in the likely event that 51 senators โ€” after hearing nearly two weeks of presentation and argument from both sides โ€” want to hear from one or two of them?

Why, with Election Day only ten months away, would Speaker Pelosi stoke an impeachment vote that could be perilous for many of her members, on the insistence that Trump was such a clear and present danger she could brook no delay, but then . . . sit on the impeachment articles for a month, accomplishing nothing in the interim except to undermine the presidential bids of several Senate Democrats, who will be trapped in Washington when they should be out campaigning with Iowaโ€™s caucuses just two weeks away?

None of this would have happened if there had been a truly impeachable offense.

Read Entire Article on National Review

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The Thinking Conservative
The Thinking Conservativehttps://www.thethinkingconservative.com/
The goal of THE THINKING CONSERVATIVE is to help us educate ourselves on conservative topics of importance to our freedom and our pursuit of happiness. We do this by sharing conservative opinions on all kinds of subjects, from all types of people, and all kinds of media, in a way that will challenge our perceptions and help us to make educated choices.

AI Takes Customer Service from Doublespeak to Triplespeak

Corporations are replacing customer service agents with AI agents. Here's a real-life example of attempting to use AI to have my internet restored.

The Left’s Descent into Extremismย ย 

The political left, from mainstream Dems to radical Antifa, have embraced extremism, alienating swaths of the public and undermining their own influence.

Roger Stone Speaks About Trump at Turning Point USA

Longtime Donald Trump friend, Roger Stone, gave a speech at the 2025 TPUSA convention offering his take on the recent Epstein List controversy.

Dredging the Swamp For CNN RINOs

Epstein ran a multinational child sex trafficking ring to service and entrap political and business elites to blackmail and to usurp democratic governance.

Trump Turned His Head And Saved America

It was a turn of President Trump's head to view an immigration chart that saved his life. It was Divine intervention, God saved Trump so he could save America.

Gut Bacteria Could Help Remove โ€˜Forever Chemicalsโ€™ From Body

Researchers found that nine species of gut bacteria can help detoxify the body from forever chemicals, absorbing PFAS linked to cancer and other illnesses.

Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell ready to reveal ‘truth’ of pedophile client list

Ghislaine Maxwell is only person serving time on child sex trafficking despite fact that pedophileย Jeffrey Epsteinย allegedly controlled a web of underage girls.

8 Chinese Nationals on Student Visas Charged in Computer โ€˜Pop-Upโ€™ Scam Targeting Elders

Chinese nationals on student visas in the US have been indicted for alleged role in scam targeting elderly Americans through fraudulent computer pop-ups.

ICE Detains 361 Illegal Immigrants, Finds 14 Minors in Operation at California Marijuana Farms

DHS Sec Kristi Noem said ICE agents detained 361 illegal immigrants and found 14 unaccompanied minors during operation on marijuana farms in CA.

Trump Says He Spoke to Bongino Amid Reports of Infighting Over Epstein Files

President Trump spoke to FBI Deputy Dir. Dan Bongino, indicating the two remain close despite reported friction over release of Jeffrey Epstein docs.

EU Wonโ€™t Retaliate to Trumpโ€™s 30 Percent Tariff, Countermeasures on Hold Until August

EC President Ursula von der Leyen said EU will extend suspension on countermeasures to U.S. tariffs until next month while trade negotiations continue.

Trump Announces 30 Percent Tariff on EU, Mexico

President Donald Trump has announced a 30 percent tariff on imports from the European Union and Mexico, to go into effect on Aug. 1, 2025.

Tariff Windfall Drives Surprise $27 Billion US Budget Surplus in June

New data from Treasury Dept show that surging tariff revenues in June helped U.S. government post an unexpected budget surplus of $27 billion.
spot_img

Related Articles