This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared in the Home Reporter and Spectator dated October 3, 2019
Last week, City Councilman Joe Borelli urged President Trump to locate his presidential library on Staten Island, but it’s unclear if there will ever be a Trump presidential library.
The 13 such existing such National Archives-affiliated libraries store and make available presidential records, but sharing his records isn’t something President Trump is interested in.
Dozens of times, the Trump administration has refused to release information requested by Congress through its constitutional oversight responsibility. And now, after the whistleblower complaint caused the President to share a transcript of the call with the Ukrainian President at the center of that controversy, we have learned that his administration has gone to great lengths to keep even more Presidential records hidden.
In fact, it moved that same transcript of that call to the most secure computer server reserved only for the most classified state secrets. This call didn’t fit that definition, as evidenced by the fact that Trump ultimately released the transcript of the call to the public.
News has broken that other calls, not normally moved to this server, were placed there as well. These were calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
I am not a conspiracy theorist, but further revelations are proving that, in this matter, a conspiracy is not a theory.
“It is almost incomprehensible that we are living in an America where the President openly states that he wishes he could execute a member of Congress and a whistleblower…”
Secretary of State Pompeo participated in the call where President Trump pressured the Ukrainian leader to dig up dirt on his potential campaign adversary. President Trump and Attorney General Barr have urged the governments of Australia, Ukraine, Italy, and the U.K. to assist in contesting the fact that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
The President and his highest aides have been using the federal government to pressure multiple foreign nations to counter the conclusions of their own intelligence community, strictly for the purpose of benefitting his reelection campaign.
The question of whether to move forward with an impeachment inquiry had heated up as the summer wore on. Due to the fact it was a foregone conclusion a Senate trial would not result in removal, many Democrats believed it risky, with the election just a year away. But, the past week has changed the calculus.
A Sept. 30 CBS News poll showed a dramatic change in support for an impeachment inquiry, with 55 percent now in favor, while 45 percent disapprove. A Quinnipiac poll from the same day found that on the question of impeaching and removing the President, 47 percent approve and 47 percent disapprove, whereas just a week before there was a 20 point gap.
With more information becoming available, more support an inquiry. The inquiry itself will make even more known to the public.
When impeachment hearings against President Nixon began in 1974, only 38 percent of Americans supported it, versus 55 percent favoring them today in the case of President Trump. Nixon had taken 60 percent of all votes cast in the election held prior to the impeachment hearings, winning the electoral college 520-17. Trump was elected with 46 percent of the popular vote, winning the electoral college 304-227.
This process should ultimately move forward because it is the right and just action to take, but if there are concerns over the fact that it is a political process and it may have political consequences, one need only look to 1974, when far fewer Americans supported beginning impeachment hearings against a President who had won his election with a far more resounding victory.
President Trump’s response to recent events has been, arguably, impeachable. He has said that if the process leads to his removal, Americans will have civil war. He has used the words “spies” and “treason” to refer to the whistleblower and a Congressional chairperson investigating him and pined for the “good old days” when “we used to handle it a little differently.”
It is almost incomprehensible that we are living in an America where the President openly states that he wishes he could execute a member of Congress and a whistleblower who brought attention to an offense he has admitted to committing.
Future generations may read about this in a library, but it is highly unlikely it will be in a Trump presidential library on Staten Island.
