Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard was one of the few Democrats to publicly caution against impeaching Donald Trump. After the transcript of the telephone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, Gabbard appeared to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.
“I’m not a lawyer, but I think most people reading through that transcript are not going to find that extremely compelling cause to throw out a president that won an election in 2016,” Ms. Gabbard said on Hill TV.
But that was then, this is now. Not surprisingly, given the enormous pressure on her from supporters, backers, and other Democrats, Gabbard bowed to the inevitable and said yesterday she now supports an impeachment inquiry.
“Up to this point, I have been opposed to pursuing impeachment because it will further divide our already badly divided country,” the Hawaii congresswoman said in a press release.
Gabbard said she changed her mind this week.
“However, after looking carefully at the transcript of the conversation with Ukraine’s President, the whistleblower complaint, the Inspector General memo, and President Trump’s comments about the issue, unfortunately, I believe that if we do not proceed with the inquiry, it will set a very dangerous precedent,” she said. “Future presidents, as well as anyone in positions of power in the government, will conclude that they can abuse their position for personal gain, without fear of accountability or consequences.”
Now that she’s performed her flip-flop, Gabbard is an enthusiastic proponent of impeachment.
It’s unclear which of Thursday’s revelations prompted Gabbard’s decision but she warned that the United States could become a “banana republic” without impeachment. “If we allow the president to abuse his or her power, then our society will rot from top to bottom. We will turn into a banana republic, where people in positions of power – from the president all the way down to the traffic cop – will feel it’s OK to abuse their power with no consequences,” she said.
She added that Pelosi’s inquiry must be “swift, thorough, and narrowly-focused. It cannot be turned into a long, protracted partisan circus that will further divide our country and undermine our democracy.”
Good luck with that, kiddo. Democrats can’t even decide what to impeach the president for. There appears to be a consensus emerging that the president’s misconduct in asking for a favor from Ukraine’s leader to help him out with his 2020 re-election campaign should be the main focus of the impeachment inquiry. But this is a Democratic caucus in chaos, with hard-charging radicals wanting Trump to swing. Goodness knows what else they’ll want to impeach Trump for.
Of course, it’s irrelevant. If this is all the Democrats have, Trump is safe with the GOP Senate. And House Democrats will have put the country through the wringer because, well, they must. Trump is evil. Trump is destroying the country. Trump is mean.
It may make entertaining TV. But besides that, it’s a bust.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member