Tom Steyer Launches $10 Million Effort To Impeach Trump

Tom Steyer, the Democratic California billionaire, launched an in-your-face Trump impeachment ad campaign across the country this week. Timing and momentum is everything in politics. It certainly appears Steyer’s impeachment ad launch is timed perfectly considering the momentous exchange between President Trump and Senators Corker and Flake yesterday. Steyer is calling on Democratic lawmakers across the country to join him in an urgent call for Trump’s impeachment.

But instead of Democrats speaking up, it was two Republican Senators that stepped forward and detonated a political grenade at the feet of President Trump. Consider the recent critical remarks of former President George W. Bush about Trump’s Presidency and Senator John McCain’s on going feud with Trump. It appears the momentum is building toward an explosive rift opening between Trump and his fellow Republicans.

The day started with Senator Corker’s tweet questioning both Trump’s ability to be truthful and his need for a babysitter.

“Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. #AlertTheDaycareStaff”

Later in the day in a CNN interview Corker unleashed a blistering attack on Trump’s character and behavior. He also said Trump has “great difficulty with the truth” and that “debasing” the US would be his prime legacy as President. Corker was asked if he would support Trump for President again. “No, no way!” Corker said, adding that Trump has “proven himself unable to rise to the occasion.” In an answer to another question, he added that Trump “wasn’t a role model for children.”

Yesterday Senator Flake added significantly to the building momentum of Republican opposition to Trump. Flake announced he won’t run for reelection and issued an impassioned plea to Americans and other Republicans to stand up to Trump’s lying and lack of decency.

“I mean all of our complicity in this alarming and dangerous state of affairs,” Flake said. “It is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end. But we must never adjust to the present coarseness of our national dialogue with the tone set up at the top. We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country. The personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms and institution, the flagrant disregard for truth and decency.”

“The reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have been elected to serve. None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that that is just the way things are now,” he continued.

Flake issued a bold warning to Republicans. He told them that their silence is tantamount to complicity with Trump’s bizarre and unacceptable behavior. Surely Senators Ernst and Grassley must be wondering what their fate will be if the Trump presidency implodes and burns. As the momentum of Republican opposition grows toward Trump, when will they begin to distance themselves from a failing presidency?

Steyer intends to make impeachment an issue in the 2018 election. Steyer warns that Trump’s behavior and temperament indicates he has met the criteria for impeachment. Steyer says Trump is a “clear and present danger who is mentally unstable.”

“He’s brought us to the brink of nuclear war. Obstructed justice at the FBI. And in direct violation of the Constitution, he’s taken money from foreign governments and threatened to shut down news organizations that report the truth,” said Steyer. “If this is not a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has our government become?”

Steyer’s impeachment campaign may be premature, but it officially plants the seed that may sprout depending on the Russian investigation. The fact that Republican Senators and a former Republican President are coming forward suggests that seed may get some nourishment from Trump’s own party.

by Rick Smith
Posted 10/25/17