VICTOR JOECKS: The lowest-stakes impeachment in American history
It certainly was historic that House Democrats impeached President Donald Trump a second time. They presided over the lowest-stakes impeachment in history.
To wit, Trump won’t even be president by the time a Senate trial begins.
What you saw Wednesday was mostly cynical political posturing. Democrats barely even listed evidence to support their charge of incitement of insurrection. They highlighted this excerpt from Trump’s speech: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said.
The charges continue, “Thus incited by the President Trump, members of the crowd he had addressed” attacked the Capitol.
Leave aside for a moment that Trump never called for violence. As longtime Nevada journalist Thomas Mitchell has pointed out, Trump finished his speech at 1:11 p.m. Eastern time, according to NPR. He delivered that line a few minutes before he concluded. But he delivered his address in a park outside the White House. That’s nearly two miles away from the Capitol, which is a 30- to 40-minute walk.
But at 1:10 p.m., Elijah Schaffer, a reporter with The Blaze, posted a video of people at the Capitol already attempting to push through a police line.
How could Trump’s call to “fight like hell” incite a riot that had already begun?
Then there are the unexploded bombs found outside the RNC and DNC. That indicates some people came to D.C. planning to commit heinous crimes. Making a bomb isn’t a spur-of-the-moment activity.
Democrats are playing fast and loose with the word “incite.” Legally, incitement requires advocacy of violence. Trump never took that step. Colloquially, incitement means to stir up or provoke. Certainly, Trump fired up his supporters. But if that is now an impeachable offense, a host of Democrats should be impeached too.
Start with President-elect Joe Biden. In 2012, Biden told an African American audience that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney wanted to put “y’all back in chains.” In 2018, then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, “I just don’t even know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country. And maybe there will be.” Would they have been responsible if one of their supporters had committed violence based on those remarks?
In 2016, hours after then-President Barack Obama delivered a speech implying that police departments were cesspools of racism, an African American man shot and killed several Dallas police officers. The police chief said the shooter told negotiators that he wanted to kill white police officers. In 2017, a Bernie Sanders supporter shot up a congressional baseball practice.
But just like Trump, those Democrats didn’t “incite” violence. Spewing heated political rhetoric doesn’t make one responsible for the subsequent actions of your supporters.
The most immediate impact of sending charges to the Senate is that a trial may delay confirmation of Biden’s nominees and his legislative agenda. In that case, take all the time you need.
Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.