Schiff got to the heart of this impeachment
Adam Schiff, lead impeachment manager, went to great lengths laying out the evidence against the President. Later, he addressed the real question: whether or not that guilt warrants removal from office — with an election just 10 months away. I think that’s the real question but the Senate isn’t even addressing that; the Senate majority, in cooperation with the White House, is in denial. Chilling.
Far more chilling to me, were Schiff’s remarks on truth. If no longer care about the truth, he said, we are lost. Our great and brilliant Constitution will not be able to save us.
Consider this: last week, Jay Sekulow, a key member of the President’s defense team, gave us a preview. Sekulow claimed the President “was denied the right to cross-examine witnesses” in the House impeachment hearings. The President was invited, in writing, to participate by the House Judiciary committee. White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, declined in writing 2 days later. Easily proven wrong but that didn’t stop Sekulow. And this was not the only deliberate falsehood spun out by the defense.
This is just one of the latest examples of why I fear we are already very close to the knife edge Schiff described. The Senate appears poised to curtail this impeachment trial without hearing any evidence, and, especially not new evidence, a signal that, in the end, the truth doesn’t matter to them, either. This despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans not only think there should be evidence and that the President has done something wrong.
The truth will keep coming out, anyway, even after the Senate finishes. But will it matter?
If it doesn’t to the Senate should it to the voters? If they vote as if it doesn’t in November we are lost. This President will act with impunity. Parroting Benjamin Franklin’s prophetic words and with a nod to Steven Stall’s excellent January 23rd letter in this paper, it will be up to the voters this fall to decide whether or not we will keep this beautiful republic or have a dictatorship instead.
Paul Mack
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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