impeachment

Thursday February 11, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 11, 2021

White House says Biden is too busy to pay much attention to Trump impeachment trial

The historic second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump was already draining the oxygen from the air of political Washington on Monday, one day before it began. But one important viewer is making a point of saying he won’t tune in.

November 14, 2020

President Biden will be too busy this week to catch much of his predecessor’s Senate impeachment trial, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. He’ll be focused on pushing his pandemic relief package, visiting the National Institutes of Health, touching base at the Pentagon and tackling his other duties at a time of crisis, the White House says.

On Monday, Biden declined to comment on what is arguably a central question facing the country — how and whether his predecessor should be held to account for his role in encouraging a mob that sought to overturn his election loss.

“Let the Senate work that out,” Biden replied when asked by reporters.

“He has a full schedule this week,” Psaki said when asked about Biden’s plans as the Senate trial unfolds amid what is likely to be bitter partisan acrimony. “I don’t expect that he’s going to be, you know, posturing or commenting on this through the course of the week.”

February 4, 2021

But it is unclear if the White House will, or even can, be as removed from this political drama, as Biden and his aides suggest. No sitting president has ever had to contend with the impeachment trial of his predecessor unfolding during his own presidency, let alone in the crucial opening weeks that often present the best opening for getting things done.

Besides siphoning off the attention of the public and lawmakers, the trial, which is expected to last until at least the middle of next week, could delay Biden’s agenda and the confirmation of top appointees. Vice President Harris could be summoned to cast tiebreaking votes on procedural issues.

More broadly, Biden has spoken for two years of “restoring the soul of America” and moving beyond the Trump era. Yet in making it clear he will distance himself from the Senate trial, Biden is removing himself from the highest-profile effort to grapple with Trump’s legacy.

“The closest comparison, but it’s not direct, is Ford trying to figure out what to do with Nixon,” said Timothy Naftali, a historian who has written about impeachment. “Ford needed to find a way to turn the page.”

November 17, 2020

Then-president Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, ensuring he would not face criminal charges for the wrongdoing of the Watergate scandal, arguing that the country needed to move past a bitterly divisive period.

“I understand why Gerald Ford did what he did. But I think there was a cost to turning the corner as quickly as he did,” said Naftali, the former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. “And I worry that, through an understandable concern about the pandemic, Joe Biden may be turning the corner too quickly.”

Trump was impeached for allegedly inciting an insurrection, a charge that stems from his encouragement of a mob that assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, forcing Congress to suspend the process of tallying the electoral college votes that showed Biden to be the victor in the November election.

Biden has said his focus is on tackling the crises facing the country, including the pandemic and the economic collapse, which are disrupting — and sometimes ending — the lives of millions of Americans. (Washington Post) 

 

Tuesday January 12, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 12, 2021

White House moving day packed with taxpayer-funded Covid-19 cleanings and shifting sports equipment

A thorough cleaning is part of the every-four-years tradition that comes with the outgoing president and his family swapping White House living with the incoming president and family. 

December 12, 2020

The delicate and highly choreographed event of packing up and moving out, and unpacking and moving in, done by dozens of prepped and trained staff and movers, typically occurs in the six-hour window when both the exiting and entering presidents and their spouses attend Inauguration Day ceremonies on Capitol Hill. By the time the new president and first lady return to the White House, all of their stuff will have been moved in and ready to go — down to a refrigerator stocked with their favorite foods and the master bathroom equipped with their preferred shampoo. 

But, like most things Trump administration, this January 20 won’t be very traditional.

Before the Bidens move in, the White House will first undergo a Covid-19 cleansing, top to bottom, from East Wing to West Wing. According to federal contract data reviewed by CNN, the total for the amplified White House inauguration deep clean right now hovers near a half-million dollars. 

This includes $127,000 for what one government order refers to as “2021 Inaugural Cleaning,” bid out to Didlake, a Virginia-based business that employs people with disabilities for jobs including janitorial and housekeeping services. That’s separate from a $44,000 order for carpet cleaning and the $115,000 purchase agreement for “2021 Presidential Inauguration and Transition Carpet Replacement and Installation to correct the current floor condition of selected interior floors for various offices,” within the East Wing, West Wing and Executive Office Building, according to the description.

November 24, 2020

In traditional administration-swaps, the bulk of the cleaning, while thorough, is done predominantly by White House staff — housekeepers, butlers, ushers — and upkeep such as electrical fixes and small maintenance jobs completed by White House workers, of which there are typically 90 to 100 in roles that range from pastry cooks to florists to plumbers. 

However, this time around, the incoming Biden administration wanted to ensure that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which has been a hot spot of at least three Covid-19 breakouts, gets the sort of scrub-down a pandemic deserves, according to a White House official who spoke with CNN on the condition of anonymity. 

“The idea that they would just move in seems unlikely,” said the official, who was not aware of the specific contract numbers but was aware there were additional measures being taken after the Trumps leave the White House. (CNN) 

 

Friday February 7, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday February 7, 2020

Is Donald Trump America’s new normal?

November 16, 2019

The political fates are fickle. This was supposed to be Donald Trump’s worst week as America’s president, but it’s turned into his best.

This was supposed to be the week his impeachment trial exposed him as unfit to hold the highest office in the land, the week his abysmal record in the Oval office came back to haunt him and the week his Democratic opponents proved they’re ready to take him on in November’s presidential election.

None of it happened. The Democrats, who invested so much political capital into impeaching Trump, need to come up with Plan B. Their Plan A was a flop and the Democrats are stumbling just when they should be hitting their stride.

If you think Trump’s presidency has been an unmitigated disaster for the planet — and we know the vast majority of Canadians do — you should be worried by all this. Very worried.

October 10, 2019

Instead of signalling the death of his erratic presidency, Trump’s impeachment trial breathed new life into it. There was clear proof he pressured a foreign country — Ukraine — to discredit one of his potential political rivals — Joe Biden. We know he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last July. We know Trump was withholding $391 million (U.S.) in military aid to Ukraine, too.

Despite the damning evidence against him, it was always going to be an uphill struggle to convince two-thirds of the Senate, which is dominated by Trump’s own Republicans, to convict him. Trump’s acquittal was predicted. But because the Republicans blocked the testimony of key witnesses, the trial was a sham that discredited a once noble house of Congress.

As for the great American public, it largely tuned out from the televised tedium. No wonder Trump gloated. The latest Gallup poll gives him a 49 per cent approval rating from Americans, his highest score since being elected. And on Tuesday, the day before his Senate acquittal, Trump had the opportunity to sing his own praises in his annual State of the Union address, claiming undeserved responsibility for what he calls the “Great American comeback.”

November 2, 2019

Clearly the prevailing winds are at Trump’s back. What’s more troubling is they’re blowing in the faces of the Democrats. They were thoroughly embarrassed by the technical glitches that delayed the results from their Iowa caucuses Monday.

Far more seriously, the party is badly split, uncertain whether its path to victory runs through the moderate centre or the progressive left of the U.S. political spectrum. Nor would we recommend betting your house on an election win for any of the Democrats’ current crop of candidates, including the self-proclaimed democratic socialist Bernie Sanders or the leaden, former vice-president Biden.

As we look at an America and cherished American institutions that increasingly seem unrecognizable, we wonder if three years of Trump have succeeded in deadening the nation’s senses to the divisions and disruptions he has sewn at home and around the world. If you live with a clown long enough, maybe you’re comfortable in a circus.

Of course, we’re commenting partly on the events of one week. The election remains nine months away and Trump’s presidency could still end in a train-wreck. But Trump became president in 2016 with less than half of the popular vote and could do so again.

It will be up to American voters to rid their country and the world of this president. It will be up to the Democrats to choose a candidate who can convince the country to do this. Today, sadly, neither of these things is at all certain. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

Wednesday January 8, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 8, 2020

The Trump We Did Not Want to See

Much of the work of H.P. Lovecraft, an American horror and science fiction writer who worked during the first decades of the 20th century, is defined by individual encounters with the incomprehensible, with sights, sounds and ideas that undermine and disturb reality as his characters understand it. Faced with things too monstrous to be real, but which exist nonetheless, Lovecraftian protagonists either reject their senses or descend into madness, unable to live with what they’ve learned.

June 25, 2019

It feels, at times, that when it comes to Donald Trump, our political class is this Lovecraftian protagonist, struggling to understand an incomprehensibly abnormal president. The reality of Donald Trump — an amoral narcissist with no capacity for reflection or personal growth — is evident from his decades in public life. But rather than face this, too many people have rejected the facts in front of them, choosing an illusion instead of the disturbing truth.

The past week has been a prime example of this phenomenon. On Thursday night, the United States killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani of Iran leader of the Islamic Republic’s Quds Force and one of the most powerful military leaders in the region. The strike was sudden and unexpected. The White House notified Congress only after the fact, with a brief, classified document.

May 11, 2018

The assassination of Suleimani was tantamount to a declaration of war and has escalated tensions between the United States and Iran. Tehran has already promised “harsh revenge” against the United States, while Trump said he would  “HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD” if Iran made good on its threat, vowing an attack on “52 Iranian sites” including locations “important to Iran & the Iranian culture.”

This standoff, which in its latest incarnation saw Iranian missiles sailing toward bases in western Iraq on Tuesday night, is so consequential that it’s been hard not to impute some logic to the president’s actions, even as many observers acknowledge the lies and dysfunction surrounding the attack. It’s only natural. As humans, we want to impose order on what we see. As Americans, we want to believe our leaders understand the gravity of war. Traditional news outlets published detailed descriptions of the president’s decision-making process. Sympathetic observers, like Matthew Continetti of the Washington Free Beacon, hailed the strike as a “stunning blow to international terrorism and a reassertion of American might.” Cable news analysts spoke as if this was part of a considered plan for challenging the Iranian government. (Continued: New York Times) 

 

Thursday December 19, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday December 19, 2019

‘Historic rebuke’: what the US papers say about Trump’s impeachment

There was not much debate on the top story in the US on Thursday morning, with the two votes to impeach Donald Trump getting near universal coverage.

August 23, 2018

“Trump impeached” is the headline in one of the president’s least favourite papers, the Washington Post. It devotes its entire front page to coverage, under a picture of speaker Nancy Pelosi. One headline reads: “An impeachment that mirrors his presidency: Disruption and division”. Alongside a picture of the president at the rally he hosted at the same time as the House vote, the Post runs the headline: “Unclear path to a virtually certain Senate acquittal”.

Andrew Johnson

On Twitter the paper also posted its front pages for Clinton’s impeachment (1998) and that of Andrew Johnson (1868).

The New York Times carries exactly the same headline (“Trump impeached”), saying after “fierce arguments, House approves a charge that he abused power”.

The paper’s editorial says Republicans are “following him (Trump) down” and that “ignoring facts and trashing the impeachment process is no way to protect democracy”. It says there is plenty of blame to go around, “but the nihilism of this moment – the trashing of constitutional safeguards, the scorn for facts, the embrace of corruption, the indifference to historical precedent and to foreign interference in American politics — is due principally to cowardice and opportunism on the part of Republican leaders who have chosen to reject their party’s past standards and positions and instead follow Donald Trump, all the way down.”

November 2, 2019

USA Today splashes with one word: “Impeached”, and says the Clinton impeachment is a “study in contrasts”. The paper’s editorial headline is: “Donald Trump’s impeachment defenders set a dangerous precedent”.

“The Republicans have engaged in a whole pattern of behavior that will undermine Congress’ ability to serve as a check on presidential overreach,” it writes, adding that the Senate jurors like Lindsay Graham, who has said he will not pretend to be fair in the impeachment trial “are colluding with the defense lawyers to help ensure a favorable outcome at trial”.

Bill Clinton

Politico magazine’s front cover also has a one-word headline: “Impeached”, over a picture of Trump. It says the house has delivered a “historic rebuke” and describes Trump’s conduct as “A bruised ego, a Twitter eruption and a winding rally”.

The paper reports that although the White House was keen to suggest this was just a normal day for the president, and that Trump was “busy working and only ‘between meetings’ catching snippets of the action on the House floor, his Twitter feed belied that claim and showed a president obsessed with the historic nature of this day.”

November 16, 2019

Politico said that through four dozen tweets and retweets, “Trump did not shy away from weighing in on his favorite medium. “SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!, he tweeted around lunchtime Wednesday.” (The Guardian)  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/19/historic-rebuke-what-the-us-papers-say-about-trumps-impeachment