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Trump Impeachment Is a McCarthy-Era Turning Point--Can The U.S. Survive?
The ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate is unlikely to result in any sudden break in the "Trump fever" that Senate Republicans seem to be suffering from.
Jan 30, 2020
Last week, we learned more about the White House's smear campaign of U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and other American public servants,whose only offense was to do their jobs as loyal Americans. While watching, I was reminded of the 1954 Senate Hearings undertaken to shine a public spotlight on Senator Joseph McCarthy's campaign to smear the reputation of the U.S. Army by accusing it of being "soft" on Communism and harboring "card carrying Communists" among its ranks. McCarthy launched an investigation and didn't care whether there was any factual basis for such an investigation or whether the investigation turned up anything. Similarly, Trump's bogus claims against the Bidens, and his attempts to destroy Ambassador Yovanovitch's reputation, and the reputation of the Ukrainian government, were strictly for purposes of his own personal and political aggrandizement. It didn't matter whether there was any real basis for these charges
The similarities continue. McCarthy had Roy Cohn by his side, a master in the black arts of smear campaigns who later would mentor the young Donald J. Trump in those same techniques. Now Trump has Rudy Giuliani who helped hold military aid to Ukraine hostage in order to win political points with the Kremlin by casting blame on Ukraine for Russia's interference in the 2016 elections. Giuliani and Trump's campaign would also get a boost from their extortion of Ukraine when it committed at the time to announce a bogus investigation of Trump's then-leading political adversary in the 2020 election.
Amazingly, the scheme would have succeeded but for the public disclosure of the Whistleblower's complaint, which caught Trump and his motley crew red-handed, forcing them to release the military aid. But despite The White House's cries of "no harm, no foul," America had one of its first-rate ambassadors, Marie Yovanovitch, thrown to the wolves and her reputation tarnished, all because Giuliani and his henchman Lev Parnas were telling Trump that she was one of the "deep state" enemies standing in their way.
On the tape recording recently released by Parnas' lawyer, Trump can be heard giving the order to fire Yovanovitch. But just recalling her from Kiev to Washington was not enough. Trump and Giuliani - like McCarthy and Cohen before them - have the inexorable impulse to try to humiliate and destroy anyone who has the audacity to stand up to them, or to stand up for what is right. Trump even felt compelled to go off-message in his fateful July 25th phone call with Ukraine President Zelensky to suggest that Ambassador Yovanovitch would be facing unspecified future penalties for her "disloyalty" to Trump.
In the end, it was Senator McCarthy's vindictiveness and gratuitous cruelty that led to his downfall. The dramatic climax of the 1954 hearing came when McCarthy turned his sights on the Army's counsel, Joseph N. Welch, accusing one of Welch's young lawyers of being a member of a Communist front organization. Welch interrupted McCarthy's attack, demanding that McCarthy "not assassinate this lad further." Welch added: "Senator, you've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" McCarthy never recovered, and he was eventually censured by the Senate for his destructive and irresponsible demagoguery.
The ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate is unlikely to result in any sudden break in the "Trump fever" that Senate Republicans seem to be suffering from. Since they are all reasonably intelligent men and women, these Senators must know in their hearts that Trump is completely guilty of charges set forth in the two Articles of Impeachment and deserves to be evicted from the White House. However, due to their misguided sense of "loyalty" or just as a reflexive act of political self-preservation, the Republican-controlled Senate will, in the end, give Trump a free pass to continue to do damage to our democratic institutions for the remainder of his term and, quite possibly, for the next four years.
But it is worth recalling that Senator McCarthy also survived the 1954 Senate hearings, although his reputation and standing were fatally tarnished in the process. It marked the beginning of the end for him, and McCarthy was censured by the Senate shortly thereafter. Since "past is prologue," will the current impeachment hearings also mark the beginning of the end in the curious case of Donald J. Trump? Only time will tell.
But just as Joseph Welch effectively called McCarthy out in 1954, so too did Chairman Adam Schiff late last Thursday night when he recalled how Colonel Vindman told House lawmakers that unlike in the former Soviet Union, "right matters" in the United States.
"If right doesn't matter," said Schiff, "it doesn't matter how good the Constitution is. It doesn't matter how brilliant the framers were. Doesn't matter how good or bad our advocacy in this trial is." If "right doesn't matter," he concluded, "we're lost."
Adam Schiff's electrifying words that Thursday night are the stuff of history. But the jury is out on whether his words - or the overwhelming case against Trump made by the House Managers--ends up making a difference. For our sake and that of our Republic, let's hope the answer is yes.
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'The Only One I Didn't Want Her to Pick': In Secret Recording, Trump Admits Fear of Clinton Picking Sanders as VP in 2016
Leaked 2018 audio recording of president was released by legal team of Lev Parnas, close associate of Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. "You know, [Sanders] basically says we're getting screwed on trade," said Trump. "And he's right."
Jan 24, 2020
In a nearly 90-minute audio recording of a private dinner that took place with numerous individuals and President Donald Trump in 2018 was made public Saturday evening by the legal team of Lev Parnas, a close associate of the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, the president can be heard saying "take her out" in reference to former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch--a key witness in the impeachment trial now in the U.S. Senate.
Trump also says in the recording that he was relieved that he didn't have to face off against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the 2016 election.
Listen to the audio recording, as released by VICE (Trump begins speaking at approximately 2:28):
The recording, according to CNN,
was made by another Giuliani associate, Igor Fruman, and shared with Parnas shortly after the dinner, according to Bondy. Fruman's attorney declined to comment.
Only the first three minutes of the tape include visuals, and Trump can be seen briefly when he approaches the rectangular dining table set with red bouquets of flowers. The remaining portion of the recording is only audio.
The conversation involving Ukraine begins about 40 minutes into the 1-hour-and-24-minute recording. During that discussion, Trump asks a person who appears to be Parnas how long Ukraine would "last in fight against Russia." Parnas says "without us, not very long," and another person chimes in, "about 30 minutes." Months later, Trump would try to cut off military aid to Ukraine.
In its reporting, VICEnotes the "five wildest things" Trump had to say during the conversation--a discussion at one point he can clearly be heard saying is "off the record."
Among the items deemed the wildest was a comment Trump made about current 2020 Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). In the recording, Trump said he was glad former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn't pick Sanders as her 2020 running mate--citing his tough stance on U.S. trade policy.
"Because [Sanders'] a big trade guy," said Trump. "You know he basically says we're getting screwed on trade. And he's right."
\u201cTrump on secret recording:\n\n"If Bernie would have been VP it would have been tougher...I got 20% of Bernie vote because of trade. He's a big trade guy...\n\nHad she picked Bernie Sanders it would have been tougher. He is the only one I didn't want her to pick."\n\n#BernieBeatsTrump\u201d— Defund Billionaires (@Defund Billionaires) 1579996609
"Had she picked Bernie Sanders it would've been tougher. He's the only one I didn't want her to pick," Trump told the people in the room.
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'Take Her Out': Recording Reveals Trump Demanding Ouster of Yovanovitch Directly to Parnas--Man He Claims Not to Know
"Why is POTUS, who has the power to remove ambassadors, conspiring with goons to do so?"
Jan 23, 2020
An audio recording reviewed by ABC News captured President Donald Trump demanding the ouster of then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch during a 2018 dinner with a group of associates that included Lev Parnas, the indicted businessman Trump has repeatedly claimed not to know.
"Get rid of her!" Trump said in the recording, ABC reported Friday. "Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it."
"It's worth noting here how bat-bleep insane it is that Trump, who has the power to recall ambassadors, is talking with his goons about this."
--Greg Sargent, Washington Post
The president's outburst came after Parnas, an associate of Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, recommended that Trump fire Yovanovitch. Parnas, according to ABC, told Trump in the recording that the ambassdor was "basically walking around telling everybody, 'Wait, he's gonna get impeached, just wait.'"
"The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start is we gotta get rid of the ambassador," Parnas said. "She's still left over from the Clinton administration."
A copy of the recording is now in the possession of federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, ABC reported.
Trump eventually recalled Yovanovitch from her post in April of 2019. Yovanovitch told House impeachment investigators in sworn testimony last October that her firing was the result of a "concerted campaign" of smears directed by Giuliani.
In a column Friday, the Washington Post's Greg Sargent wrote that "it's worth noting here how bat-bleep insane it is that Trump, who has the power to recall ambassadors, is talking with his goons about this."
"Remember that Giuliani launched an epic smear campaign to hound her out of office," Sargent noted. "Trump finally did remove the ambassador, but if there were legitimate reasons to do so, why this secretive campaign against her?"
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner told Sargent that the Southern District of New York could be looking "into a conspiracy to do something to Yovanovitch."
"SDNY is or should be looking at all of this," Kirschner said.
\u201cTwo questions about the "take her out" audio of Trump on Yovanovitch:\n\nWhy is POTUS, who has the power to remove ambassadors, conspiring with goons to do so?\n\nWTF is SDNY doing, and is Barr interfering?\n\nNew piece, w/former prosecutor @glennkirschner2:\n https://t.co/CezqZufbt9\u201d— Greg Sargent (@Greg Sargent) 1579893181
Joseph Bondy, Parnas' attorney, toldThe Daily Beast Friday that the recording reviewed by ABC was made by Igor Fruman, another associate of Giuliani. Fruman and Parnas, who helped Giuliani pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, were arrested and charged with campaign violations at the same time last October.
"Last year, before he was arrested, Mr. Parnas personally heard a recording of his April 30, 2018, dinner with the president and others, made by Mr. Fruman, at which the subject of Ambassador Yovanovitch was discussed," Bondy told The Daily Beast. "We have hoped that, to the extent this recording still existed, it would be released to Congress for use in the impeachment trial."
Trump has said he does not know Parnas or Fruman, a claim contradicted by the dinner recording and photos of the men together that have circulated in recent months.
"I don't know those gentlemen," Trump said of Parnas and Fruman last October following their arrest. "Now, it's possible I have a picture with them because I have a picture with everybody."
Just last week, Trump said "I don't even know who this man is," referring to Parnas.
In a series of explosive interviews with MSNBC that aired last week, Parnas disputed Trump's claim that his efforts in Ukraine were geared toward rooting out corruption rather than advancing his own personal political agenda.
"It was all about Joe Biden, Hunter Biden," Parnas said, referring to the former vice president's son. "President Trump knew exactly what was going on. He was aware of all of my movements. I wouldn't do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president."
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