Impeachment Day 16 - Will Trump's Cohn Game Work With Congress?
Much is being made of the White House refusal to cooperate with the House of Representatives investigations into the President’s conduct. This latest move, encapsulated in an eight page letter directed at Speaker Pelosi and the chairs of three congressional committees, is being called a constitutional crisis.
President Donald Trump is backed into a corner, beset by 29 federal, state, local and congressional investigations. In recent days, the courts have all but laughed out loud at Department of Justice arguments in both the New York tax return case and the DC Mueller grand jury materials case.
A DOJ lawyer actually argued with a straight face in DC Federal court on Tuesday that the courts got everything wrong in the Nixon/Watergate litigation, suggesting the 37th President’s crimes should have remained hidden from public view.
The current administration’s PR campaign centers on calling the impeachment inquiries an “unconstitutional” effort to overturn the 2016 election.
As historian Kevin M. Kruse recently reminded people, this was the same defense used by then-Vice President Gerald Ford in 1974.
Looking back at Trump’s personal history, I would argue he’s drawing from the legacy of attorney Roy Cohn, infamous as chief counsel for red-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy’s subcommittee in the 1950s.
Politico’s Michael Kruse review of the recently released documentary Where’s My Roy Cohn? highlights the importance of the relationship between Trump and his one-time attorney.
From 1973, when Cohn started representing the Trumps after the Department of Justice sued them for racist rental practices at the thousands of apartments they owned, through the rest of the ’70s and into the ’80s, when he served as an indispensable macher for Trump’s career-launching maneuvers, Cohn became for Trump something much more than simply his attorney. At a most formative moment for Trump, there was no more formative figure than Cohn.
Tyrnauer and Zirin remind viewers and readers that Cohn imparted an M.O. that’s been on searing display throughout Trump’s ascent, his divisive, captivating campaign, and his fraught, unprecedented presidency. Deflect and distract, never give in, never admit fault, lie and attack, lie and attack, publicity no matter what, win no matter what, all underpinned by a deep, prove-me-wrong belief in the power of chaos and fear.
Trump was Cohn’s most insatiable student and beneficiary. “He didn’t just educate Trump, he didn’t just teach Trump, he put Trump in with people who would make Trump,” Marcus, his cousin, told me. “Roy gave him the tools. All the tools.”
Cohn was dropped like a hot potato from Trump’s orbit after it became common knowledge that he was sick with AIDS, but the lessons learned during their relationship have profoundly influenced the billionaire developer turned politician.
As part of his essay on the documentary, Kruse interviewed producer and director Matt Tyrnauer. The closing sentence in the Politico essay about Cohn offers up a likely conclusion to the current president’s term.
“He got away with it,” he said, “until he didn’t.”
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Now it’s up to Democrats to make the next move.
Over the years the courts have been reluctant to get involved in these sorts of disputes between the president and congress. While a formal declaration of impeachment along with the White House declaration of non-compliance may speed up existing cases, the president’s legal team is betting on dragging court fights out beyond the 2020 election.
Barbara Morrill at Daily Kos has it exactly right:
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has a response to Monday’s White House announcement that Donald Trump has a divine right to ignore Congress and that pesky Constitution:
“Despite the White House’s stonewalling, we see a growing body of evidence that shows that President Trump abused his office and violated his oath to ‘protect, preserve and defend the Constitution.’ [...]
“The White House should be warned that continued efforts to hide the truth of the President’s abuse of power from the American people will be regarded as further evidence of obstruction.
“Mr. President, you are not above the law. You will be held accountable.”
A strong statement … which will only mean something if Democrats follow it by immediately enforcing subpoenas and charging White House cronies with contempt each and every time they stonewall. No more waving a knife in this gunfight.
As Pelosi said she told Trump two weeks ago during a phone call: “Mr. President, you’re in my wheelhouse now.”
https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1181682899424350209?s=20
“The day Richard Nixon failed to answer that subpoena is the day he was subject to impeachment because he took the power from Congress over the impeachment process away from Congress, and he became the judge and jury,” - - Lindsey Graham, 1998
The Constitution gives the House "the sole Power of Impeachment," and the power to determine how it proceeds with the process. It’s not a criminal trial.
The President can’t dictate the course of the investigation. He can present witnesses, introduce evidence, and have counsel engage in cross examinations in the Senate, should Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allow a trial.
Here’s the President’s newly hired outside counsel Trey Gowdy, in 2012:
https://twitter.com/lotsofuss/status/1181721416728625153?s=20
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The PR offensive coming from the White House is aimed at the public, mostly those people who’ve bought into the Cult of Trump.
At Fox News, a guest accused congressional Democrats of "regicide" and labeled whistleblowers "suicide bombers."
I had to look up regicide: it means to kill a king.
Those of us who have a vested interest in democracy are ultimately the bulwark against the end game of the Trumpian mob (in both senses of the word). We cannot, and should not, forget that the ultimate beneficiary of this befouling of our system will be the 1%.
Trump is a symptom, one needing immediate attention. The disease won’t be cured with his removal.
I’ll close with the commentary of Guardian columnist Rebecca Solnit:
In addition to the three branches of government, there is an unofficial fourth – civil society – which must exert itself. The will of the people is both what is at stake when a government becomes unaccountable and the force that can protect our embattled public interest. Passivity and disengagement got us here; political engagement will get us out.
https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1181677172563558400?s=20
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