The Impeachment Debacle
Manufacturing Charges
I have been appalled by the grossly irresponsible behavior of the Congressional Democrats in their determination to impeach President Trump. It has been their obsession since the moment he was elected — even before he was sworn into office.
They sat back for over a year, anxiously awaiting the report of the Mueller investigation. They were primed to pounce on Trump the moment the report was issued. Then, to their shock, Mueller reported he could not find any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. So, they went scrambling for something else — anything.
Manufacturing Charges
So now it appears that Adam Schiff arranged for an anonymous whistleblower to report that in a telephone conversation which he heard about, but did not personally listen to, President Trump told the new President of the Ukraine that his nation would not receive any military aid from the United States until he produced some dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Congressman Schiff then made a great show of describing this telephone conversation to the public — a conversation he had heard about third hand, and he demanded the President be impeached for bribery.
But then, to his shock, the President released the transcript of the phone call, and it proved that both Schiff and the whistleblower were dead wrong. But that made no difference to those obsessed with removing Trump from power. His head had to roll. Otherwise, the Democrats would have no possibility of defeating him in the 2020 election because of their weak slate of candidates and the booming economy.
So, the Democrats closed their eyes to the constitutional requirements for impeachment and decided they were going to impeach the President simply because they hated him and wanted to besmirch his record in order to make it more difficult for him to be re-elected.
(Reprinted with permission of the artist.)
The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, announced she would proceed only if there was bipartisan support. But when it became clear there was no such support because all the Republicans in the House were opposed, she decided to go with it anyway. In the end, the only ones who broke party lines were four Democrats, three of whom voted against impeachment and one who voted “present” — the presidential candidate, Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii.
The Constitutional Requirements
It was a blatantly political impeachment from start to finish — enough to make any impartial observer want to gag. The Constitution limits the grounds for impeachment to “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” But from the Democrats’ point of view, who cares what the Constitution says? After all, it was written hundreds of years ago by white, male slave owners. It needs to be jettisoned.
Thus, despite the lack of evidence that President Trump has committed any of the offenses stipulated in the Constitution, the Democrats decided to trample the Constitution and proceeded full steam ahead, lying every step of the way and deeply dividing our nation.
Most Americans are not familiar with the impeachment process, so let me clarify a major misconception. To be impeached means only that the person has been indicted. Impeachment requires a simple majority vote in the House of Representatives. The process then moves to the Senate where a trial occurs that is presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate to convict.
This means that although Trump has been impeached, he has not been convicted. He cannot be removed from office until he is convicted, which is not going to happen. Furthermore, being impeached does not mean he is unable to run for re-election.
What the Democrats have done is attempt to overthrow a duly elected president by weaponizing impeachment as a political process. And that is a direct threat to our republic.
The proper thing they should have done was focus all their energy and efforts on defeating Trump in the 2020 election. Instead, they want to disenfranchise the 63 million people who voted for Trump in 2016. In their twisted minds, this is justified because, after all, didn’t Hillary Clinton characterize Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables”?
Trump’s Accomplishments
What makes this whole farce even more ridiculous is Trump’s outstanding record during his first three years. Below is a brief summary of some of his major accomplishments by categories:1
1) Courts
- Appointed two conservative Supreme Court justices.
- Has secured the appointment of 112 conservative federal district court judges and 45 circuit court judges.
2) Immigration
- Cracked down on illegal immigration.
- Began building a border wall.
- Increased the number of border agents and gave them his full support.
- Authorized ICE to start deporting thousands of illegals with criminal records.
3) Economy
- Revoked hundreds of onerous regulations placed on businesses by the Obama Administration.
- Achieved some of the greatest ever tax breaks and tax reforms.
- Revised Obama’s environmental rules designed to destroy America’s coal industry.
- Facilitated the Keystone Pipeline and opened up vast federal lands to oil and gas exploration.
- Instituted programs that prompted a stock market boom, lowered overall unemployment to record levels and brought manufacturing jobs back to our nation.
- Achieved the lowest unemployment rates in history for Blacks, Hispanics and Asians.
- Countered foreign exploitation of the American economy by demanding renegotiation of trade agreements.
- Lifted five million Americans off food stamps.
- Median household income has hit the highest level ever recorded.
4) Foreign Policy
- Withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement.
- Destroyed ISIS and saw to the assassination of its leader.
- Revoked Obama’s deals with Communist Cuba.
- Imposed tough sanctions on Venezuela, Nicaragua, and North Korea.
- Revoked the Iran Nuclear Deal made by Obama.
- Withdrew the U.S. from the United Nations Human Rights Council because of its vehement anti-Semitism.
- Cracked down on UN expenditures and the failure of European nations to pay their fair share of the costs of NATO.
- Intensified efforts to stop the importation of illegal drugs across the Mexican border.
- Recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and provided that nation with the strongest support of any President in history.
5) Freedom
- Provided strong support of 2nd Amendment firearm rights.
- Defended religious liberties against attacks by the Sexual Perversion Movement.
- Achieved a major overhaul of the federal prison system.
- Provided strong support for law enforcement authorities.
6) Military
- Began the process of rebuilding our nation’s military with the largest funding bill in history.
- Created a new branch of the military — The U.S. Space Force.
- Opposed the demands of the Sexual Perversion Movement concerning transgenders in the military.
- Executed a complete overhaul of the Veteran’s Administration.
7) Healthcare
- Expanded healthcare freedom by abolishing the individual mandate in Obamacare.
- Provided more healthcare choices to veterans.
- Cracked down on drug prices.
- Launched a war against the peddling of opiate drugs.
A Stellar Record
The amazing thing is that these are only a few of the Trump Administration accomplishments. It is mindboggling to think the President was able to accomplish this much while being besieged by hostile Democrats and bureaucrats within the Deep State, all of whom were determined to stonewall and undermine all his legislative efforts and executive orders.
Trump’s greatest legislative failure came when he attempted to revoke Obamacare. That failure was due to RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) in Congress. This failure revealed that quite a number of Republicans were part of the Washington, D.C. swamp that Trump had promised to drain when he was running for office.
I still have not named what I believe has been the greatest accomplishment of the Trump Administration. That is the fact that his election enabled our nation to “duck a very large bullet — a reboot of the Obama Administration under Hillary Clinton.”2
I think it should also be pointed out that President Trump has donated his salary each quarter to a different federal agency. That’s $400,000 a year he has handed back to the federal government.3
It’s incredible to think that a president with such an outstanding record of accomplishments would be subjected to impeachment. Further, he has proved completely faithful to his campaign promises — something Americans gave up hope of witnessing long ago.
The “Evangelical” Attack
And when you consider his strong protection of religious freedoms, it is even more preposterous that the editor of Christianity Today magazine would write an editorial demanding Trump’s conviction and removal from office.4 The editor, Mark Galli, stated that Trump is a “morally lost and confused” person.
He further claimed that Trump has damaged the institution of the Presidency and the reputation of our nation. He accused Trump of a “habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies and slanders.” He summed it all up by stating that Trump is a leader of “grossly immoral” character. The counterpoint, of course, is that even if these things were true, they would not constitute grounds for impeachment and removal from office, according to our Constitution.
Christianity Today was founded in 1956 by Billy Graham to be a voice for Evangelicals who were opposing the gross apostasy that was sweeping the Church at that time. Over the years, the magazine has been taken over by left-leaning intellectuals who masquerade as Evangelicals.
Mark Galli is the prime exhibit of this trend. He is both a political and theological liberal. In July of 2010, Galli posted an editorial on the magazine’s website that clearly revealed how far the magazine had veered from its Evangelical roots. It was an article about the nature of God, and believe it or not, it was titled, “The Divine Drama Queen.”5 The article was so blasphemous, that I hesitate to quote it, but I feel I must in order to illustrate how strong the stream of apostasy is that is running through the Evangelical Movement today. So, hold on to your seat!
I like a tranquil, even-keeled, self-controlled God. A God who doesn’t fly off the handle at the least provocation. A God who lives one step above the fray. A God who has that British stiff upper lip even when disaster is looming.
When I read my Bible though, I keep running into a different God, and I’m not pleased. This God says He “hates” sin. Well, He usually yells it. Read the prophets. It’s just one harangue after another, all in loud decibels. And when the shouting is over, then comes the pouting…
This God is like the volatile Italian woman who, upon discovering her husband’s unfaithfulness, yells and throws dishes, refuses to sleep in the same bed, and doesn’t speak to him for 40 days and 40 nights…
We may think this a crude depiction, except that Jesus — God with us — seems to suffer the same emotional imbalance. He rants about Pharisees and Scribes — or “snakes” and “hypocrites,” as He calls them…
This God knows nothing about being a non-anxious presence. This is a very anxious God indeed.
I’d rather have a God who takes sin in stride. Why can’t He relax and recognize that to err is human. I mean, you don’t find us flawed humans freaking out about one another’s sins. You don’t see us wrathful, indignant and pouting. Why can’t God almighty just chill out and realize we’re just human?
Can you believe such nonsense was expressed by a so-called Evangelical? What he is saying is, “Why can’t God be more like us?” It reminds me of the famous line from the musical, My Fair Lady — “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?”
Needless to say, Mark Galli and Christianity Today do not speak for true Evangelicals. Franklin Graham made this clear in his response to Galli’s editorial. He wrote: “For Christianity Today to side with the Democrat Party in a totally partisan attack on the President of the United States is unfathomable.”6 He added: “It’s obvious Christianity Today has moved to the left.”7
Trump’s Weaknesses
Now, having pointed out all of Trump’s impressive accomplishments, and having emphasized that the whole impeachment process is nothing but a cheap political sham, I feel I must add some critical comments that I think Trump well deserves.
Although I greatly admire Trump’s accomplishments, and I strongly support his policies, I can fully understand why his enemies hate him so much. Of course, a good part of their hatred is rooted in their opposition to his policies. The fact of the matter is that the Democrat Party has moved so far left that it is now in opposition to not only our Constitution but to the Judeo-Christian principles that made this nation great to begin with.
It is their personal criticisms of Trump that I can identify with. The fact of the matter is that our President is an insufferable egotist who brags incessantly about how wonderful and great he is. This is not just an annoying trait. It is also a very dangerous one because the Bible makes it clear that God hates pride (Isaiah 2:12, Jeremiah 9:23 and James 4:6). It also teaches that “pride goes before destruction” (Proverbs 16:18).
Another very annoying trait of Trump is his avalanche of tweets which are often crude and rude and even vulgar. Even worse is the fact that most of them are vicious personal attacks full of reckless, juvenile name-calling. This points to one of Trump’s greatest weaknesses — namely, when criticized, he responds to the critic and not to the criticism. These personal attacks serve to intensify the hatred of him. In many ways, Trump is his own worst enemy.
True Evangelicals need to search their hearts regarding these issues. Let me illustrate my point: I have no doubt that if Trump were a Democrat, Evangelicals would be constantly criticizing his egotistical and often irresponsible behavior. The fact is that many Evangelicals have allowed their political partisanship to overshadow their commitment to biblical principles.
Evangelicals need to face up to President Trump’s very serious character flaws. We need to pray for him to develop some humility, some charity toward his critics, and some oral restraint. And the inner circle of Christian advisers who have access to Trump need to have the courage to confront him about his character flaws.
Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
References
1) Robert Knight, “Giving Trump’s accomplishments their due” (www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/ may/6/giving-trumps-accomplishments-their-due), May 6, 2018.
Paul Bedard, “Trump’s list: 289 accomplishments in just 20 months, ‘relentless’ promise-keeping” (www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/trumps-list-289-accomplishments-in-just-20-months-relentless-promise-keeping), October 12, 2018.
Steve Cortes, “Trump’s Top 10 Achievements of 2018” (www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/12/30/trumps_top_10_achievements _of_2018_139046.html) December 30, 2018.
White House, “The Historic Results of President Donald J. Trump’s First Two Years in Office” (www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/the-historic-results-of-president-donald-j-trumpsfirst-two-years-in-office), January 20, 2019.
White House, “Trump Administration Accomplishments” (www.whitehouse.gov/trump-administration- accomplishments), accessed December 24, 2019.
Conservapedia, “Donald Trump achievements” (www.conservapedia.com/Donald_Trump_achievements), accessed December 24, 2019.
2) Robert Knight, “Giving Trump’s accomplishments their due,” page 2.
3) Kimberly Amadeo, “President’s Salaries During and After Office” (www.thebalance.com/presidents-salary-4579867), December 14, 2019, page 2.
4) Mark Galli, “Trump Should be Removed from Office” (www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-should-be-removed-from-office.html), December 19, 2019.
5) Mark Galli, “The Divine Drama Queen,” Christianity Today website, July 2010. Galli has since taken down the article. His lame excuse for doing so can be found at www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/julyweb-only/38-41.0.html.
6) Jeni Fink, “Billy Graham’s son says it’s ‘unfathomable’ Christianity Today would side with Democrats in ‘totally partisan’ attack on Trump” (www.newsweek.com/billy-grahams-son-says-itsunfathomable-christianity-today-would-side-democrats-totally-1478463), December 20, 2019.
7) Ibid.
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