House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Tuesday indicated that Democrats must impeach President Trump quickly in order to stop him from prevailing in the 2020 presidential election.
Democrats on Tuesday unveiled two articles of impeachment against the president: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Notably, neither allege a high crime or misdemeanor. Noticeably absent was the Democrats’ longheld appeal to bribery, extortion, or treason.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), flanked by chairs Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), and Richard Neal (D-MA), stepped aside as both Nadler and Schiff briefly offered minimal details on their decision. Democrats did not indicate when the text would be released and refused to take questions following the momentous announcement.
Schiff briefly addressed critics who say that Democrats should simply wait for the American people to judge the president in the 2020 election.
Democrats, Schiff suggested, cannot allow that, because it would essentially allow Trump to “cheat” in one more election. His remarks echo the Democrats’ longheld belief that the Trump campaign “colluded” with Russia in 2016, despite the fact that the Mueller report debunked the narrative, finding no evidence of collusion or conspiracy between the two.
“The argument, ‘why don’t you just wait?’ comes down to this: Why don’t you just let him cheat in just one more election?” Schiff stated. “Why not let him have foreign help one more time?”:
However, none of the witnesses featured in the public impeachment hearings were able to demonstrate that the president was asking Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election. As Republicans have repeatedly pointed out – in regards to the now-infamous July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky – no evidence of “quid pro quo” exists, and there is no indication of bribery or extortion.
Republican counsel Stephen Castor pointed out in the case against impeachment, “Questions about former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter — who was a well-paid board member of the corrupt Ukrainian gas company, Burisma — were legitimate and shared by anti-corruption activists in Ukraine itself,” as Breitbart News reported.
That aside, Ukraine received a phone call, meeting, and aid – three factors that largely reduce the Democrats’ impeachment argument to ashes, as numerous Republican lawmakers have pointed out.
This is far from the first time a high-profile Democrat has indicated that impeachment is necessary in order to stop Trump in 2020. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) laid it out during an appearance on CNN’s The Situation Room in November.
“We also need to move quite quickly because we’re talking about the potential compromise of the 2020 elections,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“And so this is not just about something that has occurred; this is about preventing a potentially disastrous outcome from occurring next year,” she added: