Another Trumpcard

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Another Trumpcard

Saturday, 28 September 2019 | Pioneer

Another Trumpcard

The Democrats have decided to initiate the impeachment of the US President. But nothing much will come of it

Ever since Donald Trump won the presidential election, not quite by a landslide but rather convincingly nonetheless, there have been calls to impeach him from various quarters inside the US. These were mainly predicated on the fact of illegal interference by Russian operatives, almost certainly linked to the Kremlin, in Trump’s surprise victory. A year-long investigation into these allegations of impropriety led by former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Robert Mueller, has not done much to damage the Trump train. Now, however, a call made by the US President to Vlodymyr Zelensky, the new President of Ukraine, during which he dropped hints that the latter should investigate former Vice-President and now the Democratic front-runner for the 2020 US election, Joe Biden, and his son’s business dealings in that country, has become controversial. After a whistle-blower, who according to The New York Times is from the US Central Intelligence Agency, flagged the call and complained to his superiors about it, matters have moved fast. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, the lower House of the US Congress, has started a formal inquiry to start impeachment proceedings against Trump. In recent history, two American Presidents were “impeached” — Richard Nixon resigned before the move — Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Both were acquitted by the US upper House, the Senate. The latter is almost certain to happen in this case again, given the hyper-partisan times we live in. The fact that Nixon was forced to resign as President was primarily because both American political parties came together against him. With few in the Republican Party going against Trump, the same is well nigh impossible.

While Nixon and Clinton were disgraced, at least for a while, Trump sees the impeachment proceedings as a political edge. While a case might have been made for an impeachment early in his term, starting the process now, 14 months ahead of the presidential election, prima facie seems to benefit Trump and his “witchhunt” narrative. Not only that, with the White House releasing the transcript of the phone conversation, he seems to be highlighting the misdemeanours of his opponent and not fighting shy of the charge of using another country in his domestic affairs. He might have surprised everyone in 2016 but that was a lesson on how shrewd the man is politically. Despite the near-constant haranguing by Opposition party members, Trump seems to revel in the moment. So close to the election, unless something substantial can be found, the impeachment proceedings will almost definitely help rather than harm him. And Trump knows that as long as his own party controls the US Senate, nothing is going to happen to him. This could potentially fire up his base. Besides, US voters want local issues, not some theoretical technicality to determine their agenda.

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