Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), an otherwise completely obscure far-left backbencher, has just made a bid not to slide into total oblivion once he finally skulks out of the Capitol for the last time. He has filed articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, and while many other quixotic leftists have done that, Cohen has distinguished himself in filing no less than 26 articles of impeachment against Trump, which has got to be a record.
Prof. Jonathan Turley remarked drily that Cohen “appears to believe that the problem with past impeachments has been brevity. His 26 articles of impeachment include everything short of ripping a label off a mattress, including the new impeachable offense of ‘self-aggrandizement.’”
Wow. “Self-aggrandizement” is impeachable now? If that sticks, and in light of the fact that the last time the Democrats impeached Trump, he was out of office, Barack Hussein Obama and Old Joe Biden better tread lightly. Few, if any, of the occupants of the White House have been more self-aggrandizing than that pair of unctuous dissemblers, and so if “self-aggrandizement” is impeachable, they better be prepared to get their own articles of impeachment fairly soon.
Newsweek reported Saturday that Cohen’s articles of impeachment, which he introduced last Thursday, accuse Trump of “abuses of power, violations of his oath of office, and a sweeping range of other alleged misconduct.” What they ultimately boil down to, however, is that Trump is not a far-left Democrat, and is, in fact, impeding the advancement of the far-left, Democrat agenda, and so he must be discredited and destroyed.
Cohen, who is, disgracefully enough, a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, is clearly following the strategy that the Democrats have used with varying levels of success ever since Watergate: accuse Republicans of ethical violations, while posing as being pure and free from corruption. If no genuine ethical violations can be found, fabricate some out of the mere fact that Republicans have a vision and policy recommendations that differ from those of the Democrats. Like any good authoritarian, attempt to make disagreement into a criminal offense.
And so Cohen’s impeachment articles “encompass allegations involving Trump's immigration policies, the use of military power, federal spending, tariffs, presidential pardons, the federal workforce, universities, law firms, the media, and alleged personal financial benefit from the presidency.” Aside from the alleged financial gain Trump has experienced from the presidency, all of the charges essentially boil down to the fact that if Steve Cohen were president of the United States, which we can be glad will never happen, he would do things differently.
“The first article,” Newsweek reports, “accuses Trump of ‘undermining democracy’ by sowing doubt in elections.” Yes, really. Democrats at the highest levels have sown doubt about the 2000, 2004, 2016 and 2024 elections, and that’s a beautiful and courageous act of patriotism. When Trump and other Republicans, however, dare to point out the screamingly obvious fact that the 2020 election was not on the level, that’s a “conspiracy theory” presented “without evidence,” as well as an “insurrection” and now, an impeachable offense.
To make that not only an article of impeachment, but also the first article, as if it were the principal reason why Trump should be removed from office, takes an astonishing level of chutzpah, but Cohen tries his hardest to top it in the subsequent articles.
The second article “alleges an abuse of power by waging war on Iran without congressional approval.” That one should be easy enough to shoot down, considering all the military actions Obama took without congressional approval, but of course, the issue at hand, if Cohen’s articles ever get anywhere, will not be justice or common sense, but the composition of Congress.
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The third article “concerns alleged extrajudicial killings in international waters off Venezuela, while a fourth targets the deployment of military forces against U.S. cities.” Newsweek also notes that “immigration features prominently in the resolution. The articles target Trump's birthright citizenship executive order and the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador. They also make allegations concerning conditions at El Salvador's CECOT prison and accuse the administration of defying court orders in immigration enforcement.”
In other words, the president must be an open-borders leftist who lets enemies of the nation act freely against the U.S., or else he will face impeachment. Others go on in the same vein, accusing Trump of “unlawfully withholding congressionally appropriated funds, imposing loyalty tests on the federal workforce, improperly terminating inspectors general, and abusing presidential pardon powers.” That is, govern as a Democrat. Don’t fight the Deep State. Resistance is impeachable.
Cohen’s absurd and lengthy articles are unlikely to gain any traction, but if the Democrats capture Congress, you might find a lot of people who know better taking them with the utmost seriousness.