Fox Legal Analyst Says Trump Must Go & Former Bush Aide Accuses Republican Senators of Cover-up

Long-time Fox News legal analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano, hasn't been getting a lot of air time during Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial, so he took matters into his own hands and penned a detailed argument for the President's removal for "high crimes and misdemeanors." Napolitano, who was once a Trump supporter, has soured on him as the evidence of wrong-doing has piled up. Yesterday he took it a step further and wrote that while Trump was clearly guilty of multiple crimes, evidence of a specific federal crime isn't necessary to satisfy the Impeachment Clause of the Constitution.

Napolitano: "The Constitution prescribes the bases for impeachment as treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. However, this use of the word "crimes" does not refer to violations of federal criminal statutes. It refers to behavior that is so destructive of the constitutional order that it is the moral equivalent of statutory crimes."

And the judge is equally clear about Trump's guilt.

Napolitano: "What is required for removal of the president? A demonstration of presidential commission of high crimes and misdemeanors, of which in Trump's case the evidence is ample and uncontradicted."

Former George W. Bush aide and conservative commentator, Michael Gerson, also wrote an op-ed yesterday, but he focused on the President's obstruction of the Ukraine inquiry and the complicity of Senate Republicans. Writing about Trump's strategy in both the Russia and Ukraine scandals he says:

Gerson, Washington Post: "How has the president largely avoided the consequences of his corruption? By employing the methods of his mentor Roy Cohn. Admit nothing. Stonewall investigators. Defy subpoenas. Viciously attack opponents. Flood the zone with exculpatory lies. Feel no shame. Show no mercy. Claim anything short of prison to be complete exoneration."

And Gerson is scathing in his condemnation of Senate Republicans who are complicit in Trump's obstruction, and warns of the eventual consequences for the nation.

Gerson, Washington Post: "In terms that would have gladdened the heart of Richard Nixon in his day, the coverup is working. Senate Republicans seem determined to cover up for Trump’s coverup. What is essentially state-run media — Fox News and conservative talk radio — have created a narrative of establishment persecution that covers up for the Senate’s coverup of the Trump coverup. The president is protected by layer upon layer of obfuscation, misdirection and deception. Gradually at first, but now in a sudden rush, the norms of truthfulness, public service and ethical behavior have given way. And the message has been sent to Trump and future iterations of Trump: Corruption has no consequence."

Trump's Senate trial isn't over and there is still time for a Republican to rise about party and stand for something beyond short-term political gain. Fox, Rush and Sean would brand them heretics, but history would remember them like attorney Joseph N. Welch who ended Joseph McCarthy's reign of terror in the Senate when he famously asked the Senator, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, ...?” Is there really no Republican Senator now who will stand up for American values, for our Constitution, for simple truth and decency?

#impeachment #news #Trump

By: Don Lam & Curated Content

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore