Impeachment proceedings for President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth are coming in the next two years.
asserted
proceedings → come → years
That inevitability means President Trump would be well served by a superb young communicator who is a very smart lawyer as his next press secretary, especially if that person has demonstrated the extraordinary legal chops to have "Supreme Court clerk" on his or her résumé.
asserted
person → mean → résumé
The duels with the White House press corps triggered by Trump-hunting in Congress, like those ahead with congressional committees, are very often going to deal with the extent of presidential powers.
asserted
duels → trigger → powers
There is a lot of case law on that topic, and history is full of relevant precedents.
asserted
history → be → precedents
A press secretary who knows those cases and precedents will be far ahead of the average journalist in the press room.
asserted
who → know → room
If the new press secretary has to be briefed on Justice Robert Jackson’s famed opinion in the 1952 decision Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer , he or she will already be behind.
asserted
he → have → Sawyer
President Trump cannot afford a spokesperson who is behind from the jump.
asserted
who → afford → jump
What President Trump and his advisers learned from the first impeachment circus of the next two years is valuable.
asserted
learned → learn → years
The effort to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth this week was led by outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
asserted
effort → impeach → Kentucky
(Massie was booted out of his job of a dozen years in a May Republican primary, which Massie lost to Republican Ed Gallrein by nearly 10% — a stunning rebuke of Massie’s inveterate grandstanding.)
Massie failed in his last act in Congress, but the attention he attracted in failing demonstrated again that an attention-starved congressman can always get some cameras on him or her via moves to impeach anyone, anytime.
uncertain
congressman → boot → anyone
Democrats noticed, especially achievement-free members like Massie who want some attention.
asserted
who → notice → attention
The foolishness of the latest impeachment push was demonstrated by its target, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, in a Tuesday morning press conference.
asserted
foolishness → demonstrate → conference
Hegseth set an example of how to play offense against ridiculous charges: Speak in clear, crisp and detailed sentences.
asserted
Hegseth → set → sentences
Massie is an attention addict, and he’s been contemplating the awful process of sudden withdrawal from his source of fleeting endorphins: Beltway journalists asking him questions as though he mattered.
Massie was first elected as a congressman from Kentucky in 2014 and will have warmed a seat there for a dozen years before he leaves.
asserted
he → contemplate → years
He could have actually worked on a particular issue and developed some valuable expertise.
uncertain
He → work → expertise
Instead, he became a kind of House moth, attracted to camera lights whenever they were turned his way.
asserted
they → become → lights
Massie’s "accomplishments," if there are any genuine ones, are unknown to many beyond his own inner circle.
asserted
accomplishments → be → circle
He gets credit along with a handful of others for the provision in the 2018 Farm Bill that removed hemp from the federal controlled substances definition, opening the way for commercial production nationwide.
asserted
that → get → production
Massie got hooked on those cable channel lights of television, so he moved on from hemp and got hooked on the Epstein files.
asserted
he → hook → files
Massie rode that particular horse very hard, never taking his eyes off his own weird goal of getting the entire file dropped on the public.
asserted
file → ride → public
He deployed a discharge petition to get a vote and lured three other Republicans into joining him — Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
asserted
He → deploy → Carolina
All four will be gone by Jan. 3.
asserted
four → go → Jan.
A few folks got gored, like former British ambassador to the United States Lord Peter Mandelson and former U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
asserted
folks → gore → Mandelson
But there was nothing in those voluminous files that implicated President Trump in Epstein’s crimes.
asserted
that → be → crimes
Massie got zero out of that stunt except a precedent for breaking the long-established practice of not releasing raw files from investigations.
asserted
Massie → get → investigations
Discharge petitions are a break with party leadership and rarely end well.
asserted
petitions → end → leadership
New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler forced a discharge petition on his own conference that required a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies.
asserted
that → force → subsidies
Three other Republicans joined Lawler in the stunt and only managed to embarrass his GOP colleagues who voted no on the actual bill.
asserted
who → join → bill
Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie all joined Lawler on that petition.
asserted
Fitzpatrick → join → petition
All four lost last week.
asserted
four → lose → ?
Stunts are remembered mostly by those they hurt.
asserted
they → remember → those
The enormity of the blue tsunami should not obscure the fact that all eight Republicans who turned on their caucus will be out on their backs come January, right along with many other members of the "Knucklehead Caucus" who kneecapped then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy in October 2023.
asserted
who → obscure → October
What all these rogue Republicans thought was "good politics" could not save them, and their demands for attention won’t be easily forgotten.
uncertain
demands → think → attention
Lobbying and public affairs firms are going to say "pass" if and when these types come looking for work.
asserted
types → go → work
Which company wants to be represented by Massie et al.?
asserted
company → want → .
If they would stab their own party, why would they stay loyal to their prospective new employers and clients?
asserted
they → stab → employers
Not that it matters to Democrats now.
asserted
it → matter → Democrats
With their enormous majority, Democrats will call impeachment votes again and again, and they can count on near-unanimous support from their caucus.
asserted
they → call → caucus
That means many hearings on many articles of impeachment, some of which will pass, and then hours, days, weeks and months of the Senate’s time will be spent on impeachment trials.
As with the idiotic demand from Massie for a vote on impeachment, so will it be with every impeachment proceeding in 2027-2028: lots of media attention for those who emerge as champions of the efforts to finally "get Trump."
asserted
who → mean → Trump
They won’t succeed, of course.
asserted
They → succeed → course
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
