The
House managers had proved their case to his satisfaction even without
new witnesses, Mr. Alexander added, but “they do not meet the
Constitution’s ‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and
misdemeanors’ standard for an impeachable offense.”
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse told reporters “let me be clear: Lamar speaks
for lots and lots of us.”
This
isn’t an abdication. It’s a wise judgment based on what
Mr. Trump did and the rushed, partisan nature of the House impeachment.
Mr. Trump was wrong to ask Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter
Biden, and wrong to use U.S. aid as leverage. His call with Ukraine’s
President was far from “perfect.” It was reckless and
self-destructive, as Mr. Trump often is.
In his
statement, Alexander expressed the correct view on the underlying matter
— one we have been urging Republicans to publicly adopt since
impeachment first got off the ground.
The Tennessee Republican said that it has been amply established that
Donald Trump used a hold on defense aid to pressure the Ukrainians to
undertake the investigations that he wanted, and that this was, as he
mildly put it, inappropriate. But this misconduct, he argued,
doesn’t rise to the level of the high crimes and misdemeanors required
to remove a president from office. If the Senate were to do so anyway,
it would further envenom the nation’s partisan divide. Besides,
there is a national election looming where the public itself can
decide whether Trump should stay in office or not.
Republican Sen. Lamar
Alexander’s words reminded me of the struggle my father, John Doar,
had as he considered whether the conduct of President Richard Nixon
was so serious that it should lead the House to impeach him and the
Senate to remove him from office. Dad was in charge of the House Judiciary
Committee staff, which took seven months (between December 1973 and
July 1974) to examine the evidence and consider the question. What he
concluded, and what the House Judiciary Committee by bipartisan
majorities also found, was that Nixon deserved impeachment and removal for a
pattern of conduct over a multi-year period that both obstructed
justice and abused power.
President
Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine, though inappropriate, differs
significantly from Nixon’s in one crucial respect. Where Nixon’s
impeachable abuse of power occurred over a period of several years,
the conduct challenged by the House’s impeachment of Trump was not
nearly as prolonged. From July to September of last year, Trump
attempted to cajole a foreign government to open an investigation into his
political opponent. That conduct was wrong. But it’s not the
same as what Nixon did over multiple years.
Alexander now finds
himself being excoriated by both sides. The Trump supporters will never
forget his failure to fall in line and salute. The anti-Trumpers are
expressing their disappointment.
I’ve never been a Lamar fan. But I would like to make the case that
he did exactly the right thing and he expressed the position of the
majority of his Republican colleagues. He, and anyone who has been
paying attention, says Trump did what he was accused of and what he did was
wrong – inappropriate. But it did not rise to the level of
removing him from office. There was no point in listening to additional
witnesses and dragging things out. Everyone knew he was guilty. But if
Trump is to be removed from office, let the voters do
it.
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