We are dangerously close to reaching peak Trump Derangement Syndrome in 2019. The Atlantic magazine made waves a few weeks ago with the digital release of its March issue. The cover artwork was simple: a call to impeach President Trump in large, red, capital letters.
This published just two short weeks after Sen. Mitt Romney published a scathing Washington Post attack column, declaring the president had not risen “to the mantle of the office.”
On what grounds could President Trump possibly be impeached? According to The Atlantic’s Yoni Appelbaum, Trump has violated the separation of powers, rule of law, civil liberties, and the principle of equality.
After making this radical claim, Mr. Appelbaum assured the reader, “This is not a partisan judgment.” Oh good. Because for a second there, we were beginning to suspect The Atlantic leaned left.
Perhaps The Atlantic was referring to the Internal Revenue Service’s agency-wide targeting and bullying of citizens based on their personal beliefs, in a blatant violation of their First Amendment rights.
Or perhaps they were referring to the shocking discovery that the National Security Agency has been spying on American citizens without a warrant, and the president’s false counterclaim the PRISM surveillance program did not apply to U.S. citizens.
Impeachment could be considered after the Justice Department green-lighted the illegal sale of nearly 2,000 firearms for $1.5 million. The guns promptly went missing and turned up at numerous crime scenes in Mexico, along with the Arizona shootout that left U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry dead.
Or after the secretary of State’s attempt to evade public recordkeeping laws by using a private email server following the deadly terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, colleague Sean Smith, and two CIA operatives, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
Let’s not forget the Veterans Health Administration’s gross negligence in the medical treatment of U.S. military veterans who dedicate their lives in service to our country. Perhaps all these scandals combined led The Atlantic to a crisis of confidence in our president and his administration.
Wait a second. All those incidents of malpractice happened under the watch of President Obama. My mistake.
Since The Atlantic’s cover was released, other media outlets have been trying to move the dial on impeachment. A Buzzfeed report cited two unnamed “federal law enforcement officials” involved in the Mueller investigation who claimed the president directed his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about a Moscow hotel construction project.
A spokesman for the Mueller investigation disputed the accuracy of the Buzzfeed report, telling the press, “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate.”
It is almost unheard of for the special counsel’s office to release a statement to the press. You have a better chance of hearing Huma Abedin speak out loud in public.
There are a lot of unknowns surrounding the Mueller investigation. If this stunning accusation turns out to be true, it would be a game-changer.
However, I think Democrats are going to need a whole lot more evidence than two (likely Left-leaning) federal employees gossiping anonymously to a digital media outlet that is famous for posting GIFs of cats doing people things. Facts matter, and here is what we know.
Since arriving to the White House, Donald Trump has governed as one of the most conservative presidents in American history. His policy agenda of tax cuts and deregulation exceeded all expectations and finally reignited economic growth coming out of the stagnant Obama years.
In early 2017, the Congressional Budget Office projected 2 percent economic growth and 4.4 percent unemployment. Here we are in 2019 with GDP growth at 3.4 percent and unemployment at just 3.9 percent.
For the first time, the number of job openings exceeded the number of Americans looking for work. Impeachment? We should have held a parade.
President Trump believes in the ideas of equality and redemption so strongly that he signed the bipartisan First Step Act into law, which protects low-level offenders from disproportionately harsh sentences and improves programming to reduce the risk of prisoners reoffending after release.
He has appointed two Supreme Court justices and more than 85 federal judges who are committed to upholding the rights and civil liberties outlined in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Not only is President Trump fit to serve, his policy agenda is thriving. Progressives simply don’t like him. And that, Mr. Appelbaum, is not a foundation for impeachment. It’s just a temper tantrum.
Noah Wall is vice president of Advocacy at FreedomWorks, a nationwide grassroots organization dedicated to lower taxes, smaller government, individual liberty and the American rule of law.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
