September 30, 2019
As more details emerge in the widening scandal of Trump’s attempt to trade arms for political favors, it has become clear that this is part of a pattern. Emboldened by the commencement of a formal impeachment inquiry, other sources are anonymously revealing what else they have seen. We learned on Friday that Trump told the Russians that he was “unconcerned” with their election interference, because the United States did it all the time, (Source: “Trump told Russian officials in 2017 he wasn’t concerned with Moscow’s election interference” by Shane Harris, Josh Dawsey and Ellen Nakashima, The Washington Post, 9/27/19). Trump himself stated that he had tried to get Steve Schwarzman to look into his wild-eyed claim that Hunter Biden got $1.5 billion from a Chinese hedge fund, (Source: “Trump says he raised Hunter Biden allegations with his China go-between”, by Michael Kranish, The Washington Post, 9/27/19).
Like the mob bosses targeted by federal prosecutors in the 80’s, in one week, we have strong evidence that Trump and his confederate Giuliani have committed at least three predicate felonies that would warrant his indictment under those same RICO* statutes. We don’t know yet just how many people were involved in Trump’s corrupt enterprise, leveraging our foreign policy for Trump’s personal gain, but the resignation of Kurt Volker, special envoy to the Ukraine, one day after the release of the whistleblower’s complaint is harbinger of things to come, (Source: “Kurt Volker, Trump’s Envoy to Ukraine, Resigns,” by Peter Baker, The New York Times, 9/27/19).
As it increasingly becomes likely that the issue isn’t whether Trump will leave The White House, but when, we must remain vigilant and resist cheap and easy solution, just getting rid of Trump. We can see signs emerging already. On Sunday, CNN aired gauzy promos for a piece on the five moderate Congresswomen who penned last Monday’s Op-Ed in The Washington Post calling for impeachment. While we can certainly be glad that these five women did the right thing when incontrovertible evidence emerged that Trump was jeopardizing national security, lauding them as “heroes” whitewashes recent history and erases the efforts of Congressmembers who risked a lot more than their seats to call for impeachment.
Rep. Al Green,and Rep. Maxine Waters having been calling for Trump to be impeached since early in his tenure and Rep. Rashida Tlaib called for impeachment the night she was sworn into Congress. All of them recognized that this president’s rampant corruption and truly appalling human rights abuses constituted impeachable offenses. In return, they received death threats and chastisement from the Speaker.
The urge to lionize the five self-described “badasses” at the expense of people of color plays into two converging tropes— the need to credit moderate white people for belatedly coming to a conclusion that progressives and people of color saw long before; and treating egregious abuses of power that target marginalized people as mere “political differences” that don’t merit removal from office. It is telling that talk of impeachment only gained traction when the country’s geopolitical interests were threatened.
While we have been watching Trump descend further into Captain Queeg-like antics, calling for Adam Schiff to be investigated for treason, the repressive machinery of this administration, working hand in glove with an anti-democratic Republican Senate majority, soldiers on. The Senate Judiciary Committee is rushing to install right-wing ideologue Steven Menashi in the Second Circuit seat once held by Thurgood Marshall. Menashi has a track record of denigrating feminists, LGBTQ people and people of color dating back to his days as an editor at The Dartmouth Review and continuing to the current day in scholarly articles that come close to endorsing ethnonationalism. If confirmed, Menashi will be a reliable check on any effort to enforce equal rights for women, LGBTQ people or people of color.
Meanwhile, in a Texas courtroom, the judge in the trial of the police officer who shot Botham Jean in cold blood in his own apartment, instructed the jury that it could consider the “Castle doctrine” which allows the use of deadly force in defense of one’s own home, (Source: “Judge Rules Jury Can Consider Castle Doctrine in Amber Guyger Murder Trial,”dfw.cbslocal.com, 9/30/19). Given that the officer was an intruder in Botham Jean’s home, it is yet another example of the legal system contorting itself to exculpate white people who kill Black people.
The chilling truth is that the impulse to erase the work of people of color, the urge to nullify our rights through the installation of retrograde judges; and the compulsion to repeatedly twist the law to allow Black lives to be extinguished with impunity all come from the same ugly place. Even if we get Trump behind bars, until we face that fact, nothing will change.
* Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. 1961-68