Bill Press - Trump Must Go: The Top 100 Reasons to Dump Trump (and One to Keep Him)

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To the Resistance, which is already making a differencein making America America again

I would give myself an A +

Donald Trump

Enough is enough.

We cant take it any longer.

The country cant absorb any more.

Chaos and corruption have become our new normal.

Trump must go.

Somehow, weve managed to endure almost two years of Donald Trumps disastrous presidency. The fact that weve survived at all is no credit to him. Its a testimony to the stability, solidity, and strength of the American people that we can still maintain a steady course, despite having a total buffoon in the White House.

But this madness cannot continue. Trump has already done so much damage, at home and abroad, that it will take us decades to recover. Every day hes in office brings another tear in the fabric that makes up the American republic. We cannot risk another two years. We cannot risk another year. We cannot risk another six months.

His poll numbers reflect that. Trump started out with a low approval rating of 45 percent, and it hasnt fluctuated much since. He ended 2017 with only 35 percent of Americans approving his performance in office, the lowest level recorded since the dawn of modern polling. At the end of their first year in office, George W. Bush enjoyed an 86 percent approval rating; John F. Kennedy, 77 percent; Dwight Eisenhower, 69 percent. Not only did his overall approval ratings scrape bottom, but according to a September 2017 ABC News / Washington Post poll, 66 percent of Americans say Donald Trump is doing more to divide the country than unite it.

The majority of Americans agree: Trump must go. And he must go now.

How that happens is yet to be determined. There are several ways to get him out of office. Each of them is plausible and, to some degree, already under way.

For one, he might well be found guilty of criminal conduct by special counsel Robert Mueller. The special counsels investigation has been under way for almost two years and has clearly penetrated all the way to the Oval Office, despite the relentless efforts by Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to undermine and discredit Mueller, the FBI, and the Justice Department.

Alternatively, he could, and should, be impeached. By the end of 2017, seven Democratic members of CongressAl Green (TX), Brad Sherman (CA), Steve Cohen (TN), Luis Gutirrez (IL), Marcia Fudge (OH), John Yarmuth (KY), and Adriano Espaillat (NY)had independently introduced articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives, which ended up being supported by roughly sixty House Democrats. And by the end of May 2018, California billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer had collected over 5.4 million signatures on an online petition to impeach the president.

Impeachment, in fact, may be easier than it appears. Because, while Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution says that the President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors, it never actually lays out what constitutes an impeachable offense. As we learned from the Monica Lewinsky imbroglio in 1998, thats up to Congress to decide.

In other words, to be impeached, Donald Trump doesnt have to be accused by special counsel Robert Mueller of having actually committed a crime. He could be impeached for whatever Congress decides is worth impeaching him forfrom actual crimes to dereliction of duty to offensive words and behavior. The definition of impeachable offense is wide open. Its ultimately up to Congress to decide whats an impeachable offense and whats not, which is not good news for Donald Trump, especially as his allies abandon the sinking ship.

If history is any judge, Congress would certainly consider obstruction of justice an impeachable offense. That was, in fact, the first article of impeachment directed against President Richard Nixonthat he had prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justiceand one of two articles set forth by the House of Representatives against President Bill Clinton, using that identical phrase. And as well discuss later on, Trump has already admitted to obstruction of justice several times over.

Before resigning, Nixon faced the near certainty of impeachment for what Congress deemed having made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States. It would be hard to find any rational American who could not find Donald Trump guilty of the same offense. Indeed, he does it daily.

Evidence of how wide open the definition of impeachable offense really is came from none other than former special counsel Ken Starr, a hero to most Republicans for his aggressive leadership of the investigation that resulted in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton two decades ago. Appearing on ABCs This Week on January 28, 2018, Starr noted the gravity of reports that Trump had actually ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, even though hed denied doing so on several occasions. Youre now talking about something called lying to the American people, warned Starr, and I think that is something that Bob Mueller should look at.

If not indicted or impeached, Trump could instead be, and he well deserves the dubious honor, the first president removed from office by procedures laid out in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. That amendment, added to the Constitution in 1967 to clear up the presidential succession after the Kennedy assassination, declares that the president can be removed and replaced with the vice president if the veep and a majority of the cabinet believe the president is unable to discharge the power and duties of his office.

On August 15, 2017, after Trump made his outrageous comments defending white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, and killed thirty-two-year-old Heather Heyer, California congresswoman Jackie Speier tweeted: POTUS is showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability that place the country in grave danger. Time to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Or Trump could be forced or shamed into resigning, especially if his top aides or family members are convicted of crimes as a result of the FBI investigation. Offering to resign in exchange for a lighter prison sentence for sons Donald Jr. and Eric, daughter Ivanka, or son-in-law, Jared Kushner, could strike Trump as a fair deal, especially if he himself is miserable in the job. And some of the above are clearly targets of Muellers investigation.

Or Trump could be removed from office by any combination of the above.

If how he goes is not yet resolved, why Trump must go is woefully clear. There are thousands of reasons for ending the Trump presidency as soon as legally possible, of which only the top one hundred are documented here.

Donald Trump is no student of American history. He doesnt know much of anything other than that he is the greatest businessman, greatest politician, greatest candidate, and greatest president this country has ever known. Too bad. Because with even the slimmest knowledge of history, Trump might realize that the American people do not take kindly to leaders who abuse their power as brazenly and willfully as he has.