It seems like so many years have passed since the Impeachment Trial, even though it’s only been a few months. Today, as the COVID19 natural disaster rolls across around the country, governors are pleading for assistance from the federal government to acquire medical supplies as the infection rates and death tolls spike. We watch in disgust and horror as the president belittles governors, especially from blue states, and withholds or delays the relief so desperately needed.
However we shouldn’t be surprised by this — Adam Schiff warned us, during the impeachment trial, that this exact situation would occur, if Republicans gave the president’s Ukraine extortion scheme a pass.
When Alan Dershowitz claimed that any presidential quid pro quo is acceptable no matter how corrupt or politically self-serving, so long as the motive is not criminal by statute, Schiff highlighted the absurdity of that argument, if taken on its face. Rep. Schiff was using a hypothetical, but today how prescient it seems — the whole clip is 11 minutes, the relevant analogy comes around the 9:07 mark:
To say that well, yes, we condition aid all the time for legitimate reasons, yes. For legitimate reasons you might say to the governor of a state, ‘hey governor of a state, you should chip in more towards your own disaster relief.’ But if the presidential motive into depriving a state of disaster relief is because that governor won’t get his attorney general to investigate the president’s political rival, are we ready to say that the president can sacrifice the interests of the people of that state … because all quid pro quos are carte blanche — is that really what we want to say with respect to that conduct?
Adam Schiff couldn’t have known at the time how quickly his worst-case scenario would come true. That the president, in order to serve his own political interests, would deny life-saving medical equipment, in order to “stick it” to blue state and swing state governors, while a global pandemic threatens to kill tens and maybe hundreds of thousands of Americans. Adam Schiff warned a few days later in his eloquent closing statement, if you (Republicans) let the president get away with this abuse of power, he will do it again:
You can’t trust this president to do the right thing, not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country. You just can’t. He will not change and you know it. ...
He has made that clear himself, without self-awareness of hesitation. A man without character or ethical compass will never find his way. …
He will do it again, and what are the odds he will continue trying to cheat? I will tell you: 100%. Not 5, not 10, or even 50, but 100%. If you have found him guilty and do not remove him from office he will continue trying to cheat in the election until he succeeds. Then what shall you say?
He is incapable of seeing past his own petty self-interest, for the good, for even the life, of the American people. To say the president has blood on his hands, as The Boston Globe editorial staff did, is no exaggeration.
But it only tells half the story. Mitch McConnell and every Republican who defended the president for their own political calculus, and allowed the Wretched Clown Show to continue, must also be remembered as accountable. I’m sure it gives Rep. Schiff no joy to know that he was so right.
History will not be kind to Donald Trump. I think we all know that. …
If you find that the House has proven its case and still vote to acquit, your name will be tied to his with a cord of steel for all of history. …
Even a single vote by a single member can change the course of history. … Is there one among you who will say “enough”?
They had the chance to change the course of history, and of this pandemic, but none were brave enough to see past their own self-interest, and say “enough.”