Republicans, united, didn't spend much time defending Donald Trump on the (unfavourable) merits. Photo / AP
Republicans, united, didn't spend much time defending Donald Trump on the (unfavourable) merits. Photo / AP
COMMENT
Even during the most solemn constitutional ritual, Republicans were auditioning for an audience of one, writes the Washington Post's Dana Milbank
For only the third time in history, the House of Representatives on Wednesday night dealt a president the greatest punishment in its constitutional arsenal. The stain of impeachment will follow Donald Trump to his grave and be noted long after he's gone.
But in one sense, Trump won.
Wednesday's 10-hour impeachment debate on the House floor and the party-line vote that followed proved that Trump's multiyear campaign against the truth — 15,000 lies and counting — has succeeded.
The debate over the impeachment has proved that Donald Trump's multiyear campaign against the truth - 15,000 lies and counting - has succeeded. Photo / AP
Republicans, united, didn't spend much time defending Trump on the (unfavourable) merits. Instead, in an appalling spectacle of mass projection, they took turns accusing Democrats of the very offences Trump committed — with Trumpian language and disregard for reality.
Democrats are the ones, Representative Tom McClintock (Republican, California) said, who committed a "stunning abuse of power." Democrats are the ones, Representative Tom Rice (Republican, South Carolina) said, who "colluded with Russia and Ukraine."
Democrats are the ones, Representative Steve King (Republican, Iowa) said, who engaged in "the largest and most massive coverup of such a list of crimes against our country." Democrats are the ones, Representative Peter King (Republican, New York) said, who committed an "assault on the Constitution."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi walks to the House floor, on Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Photo / AP
Democrats are the ones, Representative Tim Walberg (Republican, Michigan) said, who are "interfering in America's election." Democrats are the ones, Representative Roger Marshall (Republican, Kansas) said, who "have dangerously shattered precedents."
It was as though Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson had taken over the House floor. Even during the most solemn constitutional ritual, Republicans were auditioning for an audience of one — and outbidding each other with conspiracy theories in hopes of scoring a favourable tweet from the boss.
Representative Clay Higgins (Republican, Louisiana) said Democrats are "insidious forces which threaten our republic" with "betrayal." This "threat from within," he said, did "conspire to overthrow President Trump."
Republicans on the floor applauded.
Representative Louie Gohmert (Republican, Texas) accused Democrats of pursuing impeachment to conceal "Ukraine's interference into the US election in 2016" — earning Gohmert a rebuke from Representative Jerrold Nadler (Democrat, New York) for spouting this false Russian propaganda.
Gohmert, ignoring the speaker's gavel, shouted and pointed at Nadler, then walked to the Democratic side to stand over Nadler, berating him some more.
It was all a triumph for alternative facts, for Russian dezinformatsiya, for Fox News and for social media toxicity. The losers aren't the Democrats — the public remains as split as before — but democracy. Just as after the Mueller report, Trump will only grow more emboldened in breaking the legal constraints on his presidency.
Trump, and Republicans, succeeded in making impeachment just another political fight. ("They don't just hate Donald Trump, they hate the 63 million Americans who voted for this president.") As such, Wednesday felt oddly routine at the Capitol. Only a few dozen lawmakers watched most of the debate. Outside, a few hundred rallied for impeachment; a lone figure dressed as Santa Claus rallied against. There was little of the fire that greeted Obamacare's passage in 2010.
To look down from the gallery was to see a House divided: almost all white men on the Republican side, a mosaic of colour and gender on the Democratic side. Representative Justin Amash (Independent, Michigan), forced to leave the GOP because he supported impeachment, sat with the Democrats; Representative Jeff Van Drew (New Jersey), about to leave the Democratic Party because he opposes impeachment, hobnobbed on the Republican side with new colleague Steve King.
Representative Doug Collins, Republican, Georgia, walks off the House floor after the debate. Photo / AP
The Rev. Patrick Conroy, the House chaplain, prayed for "wisdom and discernment." But it wasn't to be found. Representative Barry Loudermilk (Republican, Georgia) compared Democrats unfavourably to Pontius Pilate. Representative Fred Keller (Republican, Pennsylvania) likened Democrats to those who killed Jesus ("they know not what they do"). Representative Mike Kelly (Republican, Pennsylvania) likened impeachment to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Representative Doug Collins (Republican, Georgia) repeated the same misquote of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — three times.
Democrats, in response, kept repeating the evidence. "The president withheld congressionally approved military aid to a country under siege to extract a personal political favour. That's a cold hard fact," said Representative Jim McGovern (Massachusetts).
But Republicans met hard facts with protests (they began by forcing a vote to adjourn and ended by refusing to use their electronic voting cards), intermittent and then frequent heckling, booing and jeering, maligning of Democrats' motives, demands for Adam Schiff's indictment and Pelosi's expulsion, and hours of Trumpian insults directed at Democrats: Phony. Fraudulent. Socialist. Stalinist. McCarthy(ism). Sham. Witch-hunt. Coup. Kangaroo court. Joke. Rigged. Hoax. Charade. Circus. Stunt. Lies. Corruption. Swamp creatures. Star chamber. Illegal. Illegitimate. Hit job. Delusional. Elitists. Total Schiff show! READ THE TRANSCRIPT!!!
Republicans, united, didn't spend much time defending Donald Trump on the (unfavourable) merits. Photo / AP
And Trump chimed in on Twitter with more of the same — "ATROCIOUS LIES . . . ASSAULT ON AMERICA" — before heading to a campaign rally.
History will note that at 8:24 Wednesday evening, the People's House impeached Trump for high crimes and misdemeanours. The punishment was necessary and just. But though Trump stands rebuked, the Republicans' ugly defence of an unrepentant offender shows that Trumpism has prevailed.
