Jerry Nadler (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
I haven’t read it. The House Judiciary Committee released a report early Monday morning, detailing (again) the case for impeachment of Donald Trump, and explaining the two charges that the full House will vote on this week. The report is listed at 182 pages, but when you pull it up in Adobe it’s 658 pages and… I haven’t read it. I don’t think I’m going to. I have been defeated by the Republican Party. I do not know what it would take to make elected Republicans perform even the most basic and cursory execution of their Constitutional duties, I doubt I will find anything buried in a 658 report that will change their calculus.
If there are still persuadable voters, I doubt they will read this latest report. Indeed, to still be “persuadable” at this point requires such a devoted avoidance of hearing and processing information that expecting such people to even read a snippet of the report is like expecting dog to use a toilet. People who have been paying attention have already made up their minds, people who haven’t been paying attention are not going to start now, and are certainly not going to start with this.
A Senate trial would be an opportunity for low-information voters to get more knowledge about the various crimes and abuses committed by President Trump. But, that is precisely why Mitch McConnell and Republican Senate lapdogs will have no such trial. To know more about Trump is to learn additional details about why he is unfit for office. The Republicans do not want people to think too critically about what is going on here, and so they won’t provide an opportunity to think about, or deliberate, these charges.
They won’t even put on a defense of their guy and their eventual vote to acquit. In a normal political universe, a President would want an opportunity to put on a defense. Senators poised to acquit him would want to put on some sort of a showing to justify their eventual votes. But it appears that Republicans are not interested in any of this. They’re confident that their base wants Trump to get away with his crimes, and they seem supremely confident that they will suffer no electoral retribution for being in Trump’s pocket.
What I’ve gleaned from the House Judiciary report, through topic sentence skimming and the reports of others who have read the thing, is that it contains additional arguments making the case that Trump committed actual crimes: namely bribery and wire fraud. I feel like that has been obvious for some time. If waving around a giant report makes people feel more confident when saying that, I guess that’s a good thing.
As for me, I feel like Gandalf at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. Swords are no more use here. Neither are facts. Trump is a Balrog, a demon of the ancient, authoritarian world. Republicans are goblins, cowering and scattering in fear of his might. Do the Democrats have a wizard? No? Then I think we’re all going to die.
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.