Background Briefing: October 31, 2019
The Narrow Scope of the Impeachment Case
We begin with today’s 232 to 196 party line vote in the House to authorize and set the guidelines for the impeachment of President Trump and speak with David Rothkopf who was a senior official in the Clinton Administration and the Editor of Foreign Policy Magazine as well as the author of “Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power”. His forthcoming book is “Traitor: The Case Against Donald Trump” and he joins us to discuss the narrow scope of the impeachment inquiry focusing on Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s President Zelensky and argues that there are so many other flagrant crimes in plain sight that Trump is guilty of such as the obstructions of justice laid out in the Mueller Report, violations of campaign laws and the emoluments clause, as well as laws regarding Congressional oversight. We will also look into the frighteningly abundant evidence that Trump as our commander-in-chief, poses a clear and present danger to U.S. national security because if he is not a traitor, he is certainly working with Putin against U.S. efforts to protect and defend democracy and the rule of law in Ukraine. And even more alarming, Trump sells out our interests and our allies the Kurds in Syria after a private, secret conversation with Erdogan which again harms America and our reputation while giving aid and comfort to Putin.
A Rising Star in the House Brought Down by Revenge Porn
Then with the rising star among the new crop of freshman Democrats in the House, Katie Hill, giving her last speech today before leaving Congress because of what she describes as a double standard where the dirtiest gutter politics were used by operatives tied to the Republican Congressman Steve Knight who she had defeated, who along with right wing media in a misogynistic culture, “gleefully consumed naked picture of her”. Moira Donegan, a columnist for The Guardian where her latest article is “Revenge porn is being used to smear and discredit a sitting congresswoman”, joins us to discuss the moral and political challenges for feminists in the #MeToo era.
Republicans Continue to Criticize the Impeachment Process Because They Can’t Dispute the Facts
Then finally we examine the impeachment case likely to be made in the House then tried in the Senate with Corey Brettschneider, a professor of political science at Brown University as well as a visiting professor of law at Fordham Law School. The author of “The Oath and the Office: A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents”, he joins us to explain how Pelosi’s guidelines are more favorable to Trump than those afforded Clinton, but that has not stopped the Republicans from whining because they can only criticize the process not dispute the facts.