Worry about NOW, not the next election!

[Smackdown2019]

If we worry about the future elections, then our elected officials do NOT have the RESPECT and RESPONSIBILITY of their ELECTED office! The last election sent a message.... A STRONG MESSAGE!

We need to start the hearings NOW!

We need to start OBSTRUCTING Charges against BARR!

And GO DOWN THE LIST!

TRUMP may like to fire his staff, but OVERSIGHT should uphold those who BREAK the LAW or REGULATIONS!

[at140]

1. Problem might be only DOJ can prosecute..

Congress can investigate, and impeach any one in gov't but congress has no power to bring charges. That job belongs to prosecutors and federal prosecutors work for DOJ.

[TwilightZone]

2. "The last election sent a message"

We won in 2018 because we ran issues-based campaigns, not because it was all Trump, all the time. If we want to replicate that in 2020, we'll need to do the same and not get baited into focusing on impeachment above all other issues.

If it's all about Trump and nothing but Trump, we'll lose.

[at140]

3. this

[jcgoldie]

4. Baloney

Sounds great... sound and fury... then what? 4 more years of Trump? The most reliable way to beat him is in the next election. Otherwise you are staking the next four years of this country and the WORLD on 20 Republican votes in the senate? Sound smart?

[durablend]

5. And you're staking the country on the next election

When the Russians almost assuredly will have their thumb in it.

But hey, that "wait for the voters" certainly worked swell for Merrick Garland.

[jcgoldie]

7. well based on the blue wave in the midterms

... which the op referenced... pretty sure our odds there are a whole lot better than counting on 20 republican senators, 10 or 15 of which are from buttfuck red states which don't care about anything but not being primaried from the right.

[manor321]

6. Exactly! And what if Trump wins?

Imagine the horror of not impeaching by saying "just leave it up to 2020". Then Trump pulls out a narrow win in the Electoral college. Does that means Trump is vindicated?

Impeachment is in the Constitution for a reason. If corrupt Presidents could be booted out by the next election, there would be no need for the impeachment process.

[SunSeeker]

9. Excellent point.

Impeachment is really the only remedy for Presidents who cheat to win. What is to stop them from cheating again?

[SunSeeker]

8. We need to start formal impeachment investigation hearings now.

Regular oversight hearings do not give authority to Congress to obtain grand jury info. Only formal impeachment proceedings can do that.

Per the Washington Post:

Significantly, the appeals court decision several days ago reaffirmed that exception. All three judges agreed that an impeachment inquiry falls within the “exception for judicial proceedings” and “coheres” with other rulings about the proper scope of grand jury secrecy.  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-full-mueller-report-could-be-released--if-the-house-opens-impeachment-hearings/2019/04/08/e47fff42-5a14-11e9-a00e-050dc7b82693_story.html  

Trump welcomed a Russian attack on our country in order to gain office, then obstructed our Justice Department, sacking an AG and an FBI Director, in order to stop the investigation into that attack. This is horrifically worse than Watergate. We must expose this behavior in the context of a formal impeachment investigation because only that properly shows the seriousness of the conduct.

You do an oversight hearing on a cabinet secretary spending $40k of taxpayer money on a dining set for his office. You do an impeachment investigation hearing on a President who a Special Counsel found welcomed a Russian attack hacking our democracy, them tried to repeatedly to stop the investigation of that attack.

We must be on record as impeaching a President who commited these grave, treasonous crimes. If the GOP Senate does not then remove him from office, that is on them.