The Lewandowski hearing kicked off the official Trump impeachment hearings. If you missed it, click here.
To get a taste of Republican tactics, watch the opening 15 minutes. Then to watch the Democrats hit a few home runs, watch Berke’s cross examination at the end.
The question of the day seemed to be: Why wasn’t Lewandowski held in contempt and arrested?
Here’s a sampling of what people on Twitter told me when I suggested this wasn’t a good idea—and when I criticized Rick Wilson for slamming Democrat leadership as failures, and for urging Democrats to “fight like Republicans.”
There was no need to haul Lewandowski off to jail. He gave the Democrats what they needed: He provided testimony under oath that the White House was obstructing the House inquiry.
He also admitted that he lied to Fox and the media, and basically admitted that he talked freely to Mueller because he had immunity.
Hauling people off to jail really doesn’t do much except create lots of drama and martyrs. Haven’t we had enough drama?
Jacob asked:
Nope. Research shows that punishment as a deterrent does not work. This is particularly true when the contemptuous person is trying to show loyalty to the US President. This GOP reward lawbreakers. Roger Stone was indicted on January 24, 2019. He was given a hero’s welcome at this reception about a week later. Do you think less of your heroes (MLK, Jr., Gandhi, Thoreau) after they were jailed? Of course not.
For more on the problems with punishment in general, click here.
This isn’t to say people won’t be jailed. It’s just to say that jailing people should be measured and shouldn’t arise from rage or anger.
A bonus that emerged from the hearing was that Lewandowski’s Senate campaign will be saddled with soundbites that he lied to the media.
But the target wasn’t Lewandowski.
The target was Trump.
Art. 3 for Nixon’s impeachment was that he impeded the House’s power of impeachment in a subversive manner—exactly what happened here.
Lewandowski, in testifying that the White House was preventing him from testifying, helped write the Articles of Impeachment. You can thank him for that.
Once problem, I think, is unrealistic expectations. People think that Trump impeachment proceedings will look like Nixon’s.
I’ve been warning that this won’t happen. The current Republican Party is not the GOP of the Nixon era. What was then the fringe has taken over.
In Nixon’s era, the parties had not yet completed their platform shift. For example, the white Southerners were still mostly Democrats.
Here, I trace the history of how the parties basically switched platforms: The GOP was Lincoln’s anti-slavery, strong-federal government party, and the Democrats were the party of the Confederacy and the KKK.
Since Nixon’s era, the GOP has shifted from a conservative to a reactionary party. Here I define “reactionary” to better understand the current Republican Party.
During the Nixon era, Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham types would have probably been Democrats. Now that the GOP is reactionary, they’re at home in the Republican Party.
A trial with Nixon era conservatives will play out differently from a trial with reactionaries, because reactionaries are fundamentally different creatures from conservatives.
Consider the timeline with the Nixon impeachment.
- In July, 1973: Nixon refused to hand over the tapes.
- Nov 1, 1973: Jaworski was appointed as new special prosecutor.
- Early in 1974: Nixon folks started pleading guilty to crimes. April: Jaworski subpoenaed the tapes.
- June 15, 1974: All the President’s Men was published.
- July 24, 1974: Nixon was ordered to hand over the tapes; House moved too impeach.
- August 8, 1974: Nixon resigned.
As soon as the truth came out, Nixon was cooked. Because the truth still mattered to the Republican Party.
John Dean has said that Nixon might have survived if he’d had Fox News.
In fact, right wing media was born to protect future Nixons. Manafort, Roger Stone, etc, were the extremists in the Nixon GOP.
Another ground for false expectation may be T.V. courtroom drama. Real life cross examination often brings out facts without spectacle.
Sometimes (in real life) the jury doesn’t fully understand what the witness revealed until it’s explained, and the witness often doesn’t realize he was led into a trap until he blurts.
Lewandowsi did a lot of stonewalling. He also did a fair amount of blurting.
Now let’s talk about the pace. House got started in March. Earlier in the year, the government was shut down. The White House is stonewalling at every turn. Everything has to be litigated. Nixon refused to turn over tapes in July. The impeachment hearings began a year later.
The page of the Trump impeachment proceedings, in comparison, is not slow. Each of these hearings requires a considerable amount of preparation.
Moreover, Mueller told us why he didn’t issue subpoenas: “We did not want to exercise the subpoena powers because of . . necessity of expediting the end of the investigation.”
I took that to mean the public didn’t have the patience to wait out the process.
Now, once more, people are demanding that this be all wrapped up Right This Minute. These calls are coming from the GOP as well as the left. Did you notice how often in Lewandowski’s hearing the Republican Congress members accused the Democrats of dragging their feet?
Telling your reps you are in favor of impeachment is one thing.
Demanding results Right This Minute is not helpful.
I think anyone tuning in to the Lewandowski hearing will see that the GOP looked like smug, obstructing, childish brats, while the Democrats were trying to hold order, get to the truth, and expose the White House obstruction for what it was.
In fact, I think it was that smug bratty defiance that made people want to throw Lewandowski into jail.
I drew the ire of Rick Wilson supporters when I criticized the idea that Democrats should “fight like Republicans.”
I believe Democrats should not fight like Republicans. Let the people compare the arrogance, stonewalling, and destructive defiance of the Republicans to the measured, thoughtful, and careful Democrats.
If the majority of Americans want the GOP arrogance, stonewalling, and destructive defiance on display yesterday, all hope is gone.
But the polls show us that Americans don’t want that.
There are basically two ways to remove Trump from office. We can use traditional Republican hardball tactics and probably destroy everything along with Trump, or we can use what Georgetown Law professor calls Anti-Hardball Tactics.
For more on why fighting with fire is a terrible idea, click here.
Beware of people stirring your rage. It isn’t productive.
