Trump Should be Impeached Now

Congress should do its job.

It is dangerous to leave Trump in office a moment longer than necessary. His behavior must be censored, and part of an impeachment can be a ban on his holding office in the future.

Minority Leader Schumer (he’s still minority leader until Inauguration) and Speaker Pelosi say they will consider impeachment if the Trump’s cabinet doesn’t act to remove him as “incapacitated” under the 25^th Amendment. Waiting for that to happen is a bad idea. Congress was attacked. Congress should act. Republicans have a shot at redemption by cooperating in a swift process.

During a time of constitutional crises, it is important to follow the Constitution closely. The 25^th amendment was passed to deal with an “incapacitated” President. Trump has too much capacity for further harm. He should be removed because he has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors”  - exactly what impeachment was meant to deal with. It would be bad precedent to have the 25^th amendment used as a punishment or for what could be taken as a political purpose. Impeachment is appropriate. Two simple counts would be fine: attempting to induce election fraud as demonstrated in his phone call with the Georgia Secretary of State and fomenting insurrection in his instructions to his supporters.

If Trump attempts something truly crazy during the impeachment process, the cabinet should be prepared to use the 25^th amendment as a backstop.

Part of the longer-term constitutional problem we face is that Congress prefers to avoid action. Why get yourself pinned down by a vote when you can fall back on presidential orders, court rulings, or reams of regulation by unelected bureaucrats? Why go through impeachment if you can get the cabinet to do your job?

It will a monstrous defeat for all of us if Congress evades using the self-defense weapon given to it in the Constitution precisely for situations when the co-equal branch is under attack.

BTW, I voted for Trump in 2016 after opposing him in the primaries. Thought he was the lesser of two evils. That’s something I have to live with.