Maribel Hastings
Donald J. Trump’s conduct has been shameful, not only regarding his impeachment trial, but in the methods displayed by his administration in various instances. Among them are immigration, such as the policy to restrict U.S. visas to pregnant women, if consular officers suspect that they only want to come here to give birth so that the baby can obtain U.S. citizenship.
While the impeachment process marches forward, Trump continues to take steps to finance his wall, even if that means taking funds from the Pentagon; his officials continue stirring things up with their declarations, like those of ICE Director Matthew Albence, who affirmed that if the Supreme Court terminates DACA, Dreamers will be subject to deportation; and his family separation and anti-asylum policies continue generating pain and chaos.
That is, Trump has shown that he can walk and chew gum at the same time, facing an impeachment trial with an unprecedented carelessness and trampling the truth, while implementing extremist and discriminatory public policy.
In the trial against Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, for having stopped aid to Ukraine unless this government investigated his potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden, the president and the Republicans in both chambers have displayed conduct that is not only bad form, but dangerous.
If the Democratic Party does not intensify its efforts to unite itself, register, and above all mobilize voters, this executioner of truth will remain enthroned another four years to finalize all of the damage that he has caused at the domestic and international levels.
The cheeky way that Trump and his Republican band insist that the overwhelming evidence against him does not mean anything; the defense of conduct not only illegal, but deplorable. The mockery of truth; the Republican cowardice of putting political convenience ahead of the Constitution. All of that has been a truly sad and lamentable spectacle.
The conduct displayed by Trump and the Republicans looks just like that of gangsters and mob men confronting a veritable parade of evidence from the prosecution. Yawns, mocking laughter, disdain, boredom. It’s the conduct of someone who knows that they will come out on top, whatever they say and whatever happens, because the judge and the jury are bought.
Trump’s conduct should surprise nobody because as a businessman and civilian he has always behaved like a gangster and rubbed elbows with mob men. The same people who voted for him, knowing clearly what they were doing; ceding the reins of this country to a demagogue of very questionable reputation who won the Electoral College thanks to the intervention of a hostile nation, Russia, which continues interfering in our democracy with the endorsement of the White House and the Republicans who have decided to sell their soul to the devil in exchange for power.
Adam Schiff, Democratic congressman from California who presides over the House Intelligence Committee, and one of the impeachment managers, presented closing arguments in favor of Trump’s impeachment detailing a case with clear and convincing evidence against the president, and appealing to the conscience and decency of the 53 Republican senators, immovable in their intention of absolving Trump of all wrongdoing.
“Right matters and the truth matters,” said Schiff. That was, for me, one of the saddest moments of this process. The need to remind our own cheeky politicians that the truth matters, that their duty is to the nation and the Constitution, and not to a poseur who is just in search of personal enrichment. This Sunday, Trump took to Twitter to attack Schiff, saying that “he has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country.” Schiff accused Trump of intimidation and once again, poor thing, called on Republicans to find the “moral courage to stand up to this President. And this is a wrathful and vindictive President.”
It is also sad to think that this trial will not have a happy Hollywood ending, where truth and justice triumph, since the scammer will be exonerated and offer his State of the Union address has if nothing happened. Sad, because nothing of what is happening seems to matter to the American people. And even sadder yet is the fact that if we do not get engaged as an electorate and come out to vote, and if the Democratic Party does not intensify its efforts to unite itself, register, and above all mobilize voters, this executioner of truth will remain enthroned another four years to finalize all of the damage that he has caused at the domestic and international levels.
Maribel Hastings is a Senior Advisor to America’s Voice.
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