Raskin Decries Trump’s ‘Monarchical Sentiment’ as Dems Plow Ahead With Impeachment

Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin invoked his late colleague Elijah E. Cummings Wednesday at a U.S. House impeachment hearing. 

“This is a big moment for America, isn’t it?” said Raskin, a member of the House Judiciary Committee. “If Elijah Cummings were here, he’d say, ‘Listen up people, listen up. How we respond will determine the character of our democracy for generations.’” 

As the Judiciary Committee held its first official impeachment hearing on Wednesday, Raskin and his Democratic colleagues laid out their framework for articles of impeachment against President Trump. 

Raskin assailed Trump for the “monarchical sentiment” that he can do whatever he wants as president. 

“If he’s right, and we accept this radical claim that he can do whatever he wants, all future presidents seeking re-election will be able to bring foreign governments into our campaigns to target their rivals and to spread propaganda. That’s astounding,” Raskin said. 

The hearing comes after the House Intelligence Committee approved a report Tuesday night that details allegations that Trump abused his power by pressuring Ukraine’s president to investigate Trump’s political rival. 

Democrats signaled that they intend to accuse Trump of abuse of power, bribery, obstruction of Congress and obstruction of justice. The lawyer for Judiciary Committee Democrats, Norm Eisen, pressed witnesses — a panel of constitutional law scholars — to testify specifically about each of those topics, which he labeled “high crimes and misdemeanors.” 

Raskin, himself a former constitutional law professor, suggested that Trump could be impeached for abuse of power, betrayal of national security and corruption of U.S. elections. He praised the academics who testified.

“Your erudition makes me proud to have spent the first 25 years of my career as a constitutional law professor before my election to Congress,” he said.

Three of the legal scholars told House lawmakers at Wednesday’s hearing that they believe the president is indeed guilty of impeachable offenses. 

“On the basis of the testimony and the evidence before the House, President Trump has committed impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors by corruptly abusing the office of the presidency,” Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman told the panel. 

Michael Gerhardt, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, said the record shows that “the president has committed several impeachable offenses, including bribery, abuse of power in soliciting a personal favor from a foreign leader to benefit his political campaign, obstructing Congress, and obstructing justice.”

If Congress fails to impeach Trump, Gerhardt added, “then the impeachment process has lost all meaning, and, along with that, our Constitution’s carefully crafted safeguards against the establishment of a king on American soil.” 

Pamela Karlan, a Stanford Law School professor, said the “very idea that a president might seek the aid of a foreign government in his reelection campaign would have horrified” the founders of the U.S. government. “But based on the evidentiary record, that is what President Trump has done,” she told lawmakers. 

Another law professor, Jonathan Turley, of the George Washington University Law School, warned against impeaching Trump. Turley, the lone witness invited by Republicans, said he’s concerned about “lowering impeachment standards to fit a paucity of evidence and an abundance of anger.” 

This impeachment, Turley said, “not only fails to satisfy the standard of past impeachments but would create a dangerous precedent for future impeachments.” 

GOP disrupts, points to ‘tears in Brooklyn’ 

Committee Republicans, meanwhile, disrupted the hearing and frustrated Democrats by using procedural tactics.

Wisconsin Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner interjected at the start of the hearing to request a day of GOP-led hearings before the committee votes on articles of impeachment. The request was set aside by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). 

Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the committee, sought to force the testimony of Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) before the committee, but Democrats voted to quash his attempt. 

Another Republican lawmaker, North Dakota Rep. Kelly Armstrong, attempted to postpone the hearing until Dec. 11, which Democrats also voted down. 

Collins labeled the Democrats’ impeachment proceedings a “sham.” 

Democrats “just don’t like” Trump, Collins said, accusing his colleagues of attempting to oust the president ever since Democrats seized control of the House early this year. 

“This is not an impeachment, this is just a simple railroad job, and today’s is a waste of time,” Collins said. “It didn’t start with [former special counsel Robert] Mueller. It didn’t start with a phone call. You know where this started? [It] started with tears in Brooklyn in 2016, when an election was lost,” he said, referring to Hillary Clinton’s campaign headquarters in New York.

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