Listen to “The Greatest Threat Arising from the Impeachment Trial” on Spreaker.
Friday wraps up the opening statements from the House Democrats serving as impeachment managers, and while they argue President Trump must be removed from office on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, one expert contends the rationale given for not leaving the matter up to the voters is far more frightening than anything Trump allegedly did.
On Wednesday, lead impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., laid out why the Senate must act to remove Trump ahead of the November elections.
“The president’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won,” said Schiff.
That has Dr. Matthew Spalding, dean of Hillsdale College’s Van Andel School of Government, very concerned.
“This is not about the technical impeachment in the Senate. They’re playing to public opinion. They’re playing for that election either way,” said Spalding, who then offered how he believes Schiff and his allies are setting up the rest of this political year.
“‘(They’re thinking) If We remove him, that’d be great.’ That’s not going to happen, but that’s what the issue is. ‘And if we’re not, how do we set it up so we weaken him in the election, but also if he goes on to win we can still maintain the argument that was illegitimate.’ That’s why this is all very dangerous for constitutional governance,” said Spalding.
In this conversation with Greg Corombos, Spalding also walks through what the founders meant by “high crimes and misdemeanors,” where the Constitution comes down on the Senate rules fight, and whether the parties would hold the exact opposite opinions if the party of the president were different.
