Donald Trump makes the case for his own impeachment
Why America can’t trust Trump’s presidency.
By Ezra Klein@ezraklein Sep 5, 2018, 9:10am EDT
It is a strange truism of this White House that the most damning, unanswerable, unforgettable revelations come from President Trump himself.
In a December 2017 interview with the New York Times, Trump offered unexpected praise for former Attorney General Eric Holder:
Holder protected President Obama. Totally protected him. When you look at the I.R.S. scandal, when you look at the guns for whatever, when you look at all of the tremendous, ah, real problems they had, not made-up problems like Russian collusion, these were real problems. When you look at the things that they did, and Holder protected the president. And I have great respect for that, I’ll be honest, I have great respect for that.
Leave aside the factual question of whether the IRS and “guns for whatever†controversies were real scandals. It’s enough, for our purposes, to says Trump believes they were, or at least wants us to believe they were.
Consider, then, what Trump is saying. He thinks the Obama administration was fundamentally corrupt, with a loyalist attorney general protecting a rogue president from facing justice. And he has great respect for that!
This was not, by any means, a one-time slip of the tongue. On Monday, Trump tweeted a similar sentiment, lashing Attorney General Jeff Sessions for permitting investigations into, and indictments of, Republican Reps. Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter.
Trump delivers such daily servings of outrageousness that it is easy to miss when he has said something truly dangerous to democracy. But this is one of those comments. As retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said, “This is not the conduct of a President committed to defending and upholding the constitution, but rather a President looking to use the Department of Justice to settle political scores.â€
Trump’s fury with Sessions has deep roots. According to Bob Woodward’s new book, Trump has called Sessions “a traitor†for recusing himself from the Russia investigation and leaving Trump exposed to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. He’s been nearly as blunt in public:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/5/17819008/donald-trump-impeachment-sessions-kavanaugh-woodwardI normally would not even read anything from VOX but this came up on my phone today and I read it. Obviously the interview they are talking about occurred a long time ago with the New York Times. You could shame me for even reading an article from Vox and I can shame Trump for doing an interview with New York Times, and what a doozy! VOX obviously brought this up at this time for maximum benefit. But I have to say they have a point and I don't think it can be refuted. Trump admired Holder because he thought he was protecting President Obama. Forget that he didn't even know what Fast and Furious is. Just some gun thing
Trump is his own worst enemy. He complains about the media but he is the one feeding them. Has anyone considered that Trump is sabotaging his own Presidency? No, probably not just not smart enough to stay away from liberal media. Also not smart enough to keep his mouth shut about his admiration for swamp.
