Impeach me once shame on you. Impeach me twice…
I am the co-host of the Buchanan and Seaton Show that airs on Fridays at 9:00 P.M. CST – Midnight on WVON 1690AM in Chicago. With few exceptions we open the show in the first hour with a discussion of national politics, and the subject of conversation is often Donald Trump. We don’t just spend time launching rhetorical bombs at him. We have a thoughtful conversation about whatever he did in the previous week, and there is never a shortage of material to discuss.
Trump is given to hyperbole. He often lauds himself and his administration as having accomplished more in his two years (now three years) than any other administration in the history of the United States. He goes on about how black, Latino, women, and Asian unemployment is the lowest in the history of the United States under his administration. He talks about how his administration has accomplished more on the global stage. He has by his own account reigned in North Korea, Russia, and the Middle East in general. He relocated the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He has saved the farmers of our country with his tariff war with China. He has built the wall between the United States and Mexico. He brags the most about the stock market being the highest in the history of our country.
None of these things are objectively true. Trump and his administration has not accomplished more than FDR, Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, or I daresay Barack Obama. The unemployment rate is lower today depending upon the metric that you use, but Trump refused to use these very same numbers when he was running for president in 2016. In fact he said the numbers were fake then. Don’t believe me?
Donald Trump and his administration has eviscerated the Western global alliances that have endured since World War II. North Korea has restarted their nuclear program, Russia continues to intervene in our elections, and Iran has started making nuclear fuel again. The farmers that Trump says that he saved were basically paid bribes by this administration while he destroyed their wealth. One would be forgiven if they looked at the billions of dollars paid to farmers as welfare. Welfare given to farmers, while Trump simultaneously destroys SNAP, Medicaid, and disability payments. And the stock market? The stock market is being propped up by tax cuts given to the ultra-rich and corporations. The very same corporations that Trump under the guise of his tax cuts being a program for the middle class have used that money for stock BuyBacks to boost their stock’s price. Trump had basically put the entire economy on a credit card.
Trump would have you believe that he is the first to accomplish these feats. However, I would argue that he has accomplished some firsts. He is the first president to be impeached in his first term. He is the first president to have a member of his own party in the Senate vote for his conviction. And he will probably be the first president to be impeached twice.
A few weeks ago on the Buchanan and Seaton Show I mentioned these firsts. I specifically made mention of the fact that whether or not Trump was convicted in the Senate, that it is important that history records that Trump’s abuse of power merited impeachment by the House. I went on to say that even if Trump was not convicted, it really didn’t matter because no president who has been impeached and been removed by a conviction in the Senate.
But Trump’s vindication by the Republicans in the Senate has only emboldened him. He is on a rampage of retribution against all of the participants in his ignominy. The one indelible mark that we can record for all history, more than his one-term presidency and removal this November, would be to impeach him a second time.
There is no Constitutional prohibition from impeaching a President more than once, and this is not just an exercise in partisan politics. Donald Trump has basically said aloud to anyone who will listen that he has an enemies list comprised of the people who legally obeyed Congressional subpoenas to testify before the House of Representatives. Donald Trump has fired members of his administration who obeyed those Congressional subpoenas. And now with William Barr acting as his viceroy, Trump is revising the recording of history by exonerating anyone who was charged in his alleged criminal conspiracies.
When I originally made this proclamation on the Buchanan and Seaton Show, I thought I was alone. I had not read anything written by anyone who endorsed the exercise of a second impeachment of a sitting President. Then while reviewing my news feed there it was. Amber Phillips published an article in the Washington Post on February 6th titled “Can Trump Be Impeached Again?” Also, on February 6th Rowan Scarborough published an article in the Washington Times titled, “Impeachment 2.0? Democrats line up possible new charges against Trump”. Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney published ,”House Counsel Suggests Trump Could Be Impeached Again” in Politico. And on December 24th, 2019 The Washington Post published, “Could Democrats Impeach Trump Twice?”
I suggested on WVON that a second impeachment would be the Scarlet Letter that brands Trump for all time as the malcontent who he is. The Constitution only has three remedies to remove a President.
One, the President can be impeached. Two, Section four of the 25th amendment states that the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet can vote that the President is unable to discharge his duties. Neither of those are going to happen. Therefore we are left with voting Trump out in November. Vote him out. Vote. Him. Out. In the meantime let’s impeach Trump. Again.
Seaton Speaks 