Professor Chris Edelson, assistant professor of government at American University, has penned an opinion column calling for President Trump to resign or be impeachment for his handling of the coronavirus crisis. It is just the latest in a long line of such impeachment theories that reflect a fundamental misconception of the function and standard for the removal of an American President.
Edelson has concluded that it is now “essential” to force Trump’s resignation or removal “[a]t each stage, he has lied, he has created confusion, he has made reckless predictions, and he has, once and for all, demonstrated his manifest unfitness to serve.” Edelson offers a series of a conclusory statements to support this conclusion like “it is so plainly the right thing to do” or it is clear that “Donald Trump cannot do his job.” Thus, “[i]n a functioning system, elected officials from both major political parties would call for the president’s resignation, and he would be forced to leave office or face impeachment and removal through the constitutional process.”
Such an impeachment would be facially abusive and baseless. Impeachment is not means to remove a president who you are dissatisfied with the performance of a president. As I have previously written, critics have largely misrepresented the standard as a type of no-confidence vote. The Edelson column reflects the continued disregard of the history and text of the impeachment provisions to avoid precisely what he has suggested.
However, Edelson’s call for impeachment or removal is nothing new. Not only did he support past impeachment calls, but, just a couple months into the Trump presidency, he was advocating a Rube-Golberg-like process to force a new vote on the presidency before the Trump family was actually all living at the White House. In that column, Edelson simply declared that “after just two months, there is no question that the Donald Trump presidency is an unmitigated disaster.” So here is what he suggested:
“Here’s how it could work: Each chamber of Congress, the House and the Senate, would have to vote by a two-thirds majority to hold a special election. three-quarters of state legislatures would have to ratify the amendment. The amendment would call for a one time special election, allowing qualified political parties (the Republicans and Democrats, and other parties who can meet a threshold to qualify for the ballot) one month to choose a nominee and then one month for a general election, to be held on a national holiday. The amendment would make clear this is a one-time event. After the election is held, we would revert to pre-existing constitutional procedures, for example, with a presidential election held every four years. The amendment could also provide for a national unity government to occupy the executive branch while the short election campaign goes on.”
As wacky as that proposal may seem, it still thrills many readers. Removal has become a rallying point for rage and it does not matter that the subject of impeachment has changed from opposing NFL kneelers to disproven Russian collusion to Charlottesville to the Coronavirus. The premise is the same: we must remove Trump as an existential threat. Another premise is that we need a “new constitution” which Edelson often demands because the constitutional standard and process did not allow for the removal of Trump.
Edelson and others have called for the type of impulse impeachments that the Framers feared in drafting the Constitution. This is the thrust of his call for removal that has remained consistent from two months after the election to the present day: “In calling for Trump’s resignation we are refusing to accept the assumption that Trump exists outside of normal rules. We know he isn’t up to the job.” Thus, the “new constitution” that Edelson has demanded would allow for such cathartic measures whenever a majority opposed a president because he “isn’t up to the job.” Imagine if Republicans had that unfettered option with Obama. Would Edelson be praising the power of removal in that case? Edelson and his supporters believe that nation would be more stable and stronger with the ability to remove presidents on such a fluid, facile standard.
Edelson is also a Fellow at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies and holds a B.A. from Brandeis University and a J.D. Harvard Law School.
I see that Paul C Schulte rolled through to splatter his Made Up Stuff all around in his drive by. What a mess!
Someone wanted to big airplane:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya
Allan, read
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine
— David B Benson
David, I ask again, how does one test a vaccine for safety? By injecting orange juice?
David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me forty-three citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after sixty-eight weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – using wikipedia does make it expert testimony.
Allan, starting testing does not a vaccine make.
Geez.
— David B Benson
David, what do you think they use for the safety tests of vaccines, orange juice?
Allan, there are no vaccines for any coronavirus. Quit just Making Stuff Up.
Anonymous the Stupid they started stage one testing on volunteers (they were injected Monday) from Moderna. Inovio Pharmaceuticals is expected to start safety testings next month.
Why do you make so many accusations that are untrue? Why do you lie so much?
SMH
Allan is clearly obsessed with this person he calls “Anonymous the Stupid.” He sees this person everywhere. If anyone needs to see a shrink, it’s Allan.
(Allan, Several people use “Anonymous” to post comments.)
You can shake your head all you want. If you act like Anonymous the Stupid you will be called Anonymous the Stupid. That is your fault for not having your own unique alias. Stupid defines the individual. That you actually admitted a mistake is unual for Anonymous the Stupid so it is possible you are another anonymous. But why should I care when you don’t. If you don’t have pride in what you say why should I worry that you may not be Anonymous the Stupid. I think one has to be pretty stupid using the same name as Anonymous the Stupid.
You’re right, but folks are trying.
Monday, March 16, 2020
NIH clinical trial of investigational vaccine for COVID-19 begins
Study enrolling Seattle-based healthy adult volunteers.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-investigational-vaccine-covid-19-begins
“Adults in the Seattle area who are interested in joining this study should visit https://corona.kpwashingtonresearch.org. For more information about the study, visit ClinicalTrials.gov and search identifier NCT04283461.”
Fingers crossed but, even if this clinical trial is successful, it’s a long road to approval.
(I don’t know what “Allan” has said about vaccines for coronaviruses, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he’s passing along bogus info.)
“I don’t know what “Allan” has said about vaccines for coronaviruses, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he’s passing along bogus info”
I am sure if I was passing “bogus info” you would have jumped all over it. But you haven’t. You only talk about it but never with quotes showing what I said was wrong. Yet I actually demonstrate where you are wrong all the time. This is one of the few cases where you were specific and I could respond proving my point.
People did not think a vaccine could be produced this fast. In fact I think Fauci thought it was the fastest time frame ever. I believe I said the time frame would be shorter because we had been working on other Corona viruses SARS in particular and I think some refer to this virus as SARS 2
It’s time for you to grow up and quote what another person says that you think is wrong and then tell why you think it wrong preferably with good evidence. You don’t do that rather you do those other stupid things.
I think you should see a psychiatrist about that fractured ego of yours. Just a suggestion.
Get help, Allan. You need it.
Someone who runs around on a blog calling people “Anonymous the Stupid” clearly has a few screws loose. Those who think that your comments might be “bogus” might just have a valid point.
Historically people were named by characteristics so Anonymous the Stupid fits rather nicely.
I’m not the one with the small ego complex, but that is understandable in a person that is so stupid.
Run along, kiddo. Your kind of chatter is crazy.
Anonymous the Stupid, I don’t think you are intelligent enough to easily understand. One can separate you from the pack by providing an extra name that fits who you are, Anonymous the Stupid or if you prefer the Brainless Wonder.
…or Allan the Blog Idiot
Anonymous the Stupid, look at how ignorant that statement of yours was. Totally unorigional and if one looks back it is copied from another’s work product.
That you can’t create original thoughts or in your own words debate concepts and the like tell everyone that you are Stupid.
Yep, Allan the Blog Idiot, livin’ on the Turley Blog, making a difference one uninformed comment at a time.
” one uninformed comment at a time.”
Anonymous the Stupid if you think that is occurring why don’t you point out those uninformed comments one at a time and show why they are uninformed (best to use quotes). Do you know why you don’t? Because you are Stupid.
“Do you know why you don’t? Because you are Stupid.”
There’s nothing to be gained in trying to “argue” or debate with Allan. It’s a waste of time.
From ProPublica:
How South Korea Scaled Coronavirus Testing While the U.S. Fell Dangerously Behind
By learning from a MERS outbreak in 2015, South Korea was prepared and acted swiftly to ramp up testing when the new coronavirus appeared there. Meanwhile, the U.S., plagued by delay and dysfunction, wasted its advantage.
by Stephen Engelberg, Lisa Song and Lydia DePillis March 15, 11:10 a.m. EDT
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-south-korea-scaled-coronavirus-testing-while-the-us-fell-dangerously-behind
“It’s a Failing”
While Trump said Friday in answer to a question from a reporter that “I take no responsibility” for the lack of tests, other officials have acknowledged flaws in the process. “It’s a failing,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the Trump administration’s COVID-19 task force, said on Thursday. “Let’s admit it.”
There seems little question that a critical misstep involved the CDC’s opting not to use the earlier test design approved by the WHO. On CNN Thursday night, Fauci was asked directly if that had been a mistake. He would not use the word but conceded that, looking back, it could well be seen that way. He offered little explanation for why the U.S. seemed so out of position on the question of widespread testing other than to admit the truth of it.
“The system is not really geared to what we need right now,” he said.
It will be months if not years before the U.S. failure to field tests in the crucial weeks in January and February of 2020 will be fully understood.
Jeremy Konyndyk said he saw a devastating lack of urgency in the White House’s approach to the pandemic. Konyndyk, who led the government’s response to international disasters as director of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, said the government should have moved swiftly in the early weeks of 2020 when the virus overwhelmed the health care system in Wuhan with an avalanche of untreatable pneumonia cases, much like Korean officials did.
“We know that it was floating around in China undetected for some time before we realized they had it,” he said, “so we have to realize it’s a vulnerability here.”
Instead, he said, the CDC tried to create a more complicated test than the WHO’s that could tell the difference among coronaviruses. “It’s a neat idea if it works, but it smacks of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good,” said Konyndyk, now a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, and a sharp critic of the government’s decision making regarding the virus.
“But that’s CDC’s normal standard operating procedure,” he said. “My impression is that it was less a conscious decision that, ‘We don’t like the WHO test and we don’t want to do it,’ and more just, ‘We’re going to do our own test because that’s how we do it.’
“I don’t think they saw it as urgent. And this, too, is inexplicable to me. We kept hearing from the administration that it was a low risk to the U.S., and I think they sincerely believed that. And it was low risk in the sense that if you see a forest fire sweeping towards you, burning up every town in its wake, but it’s three towns away, then they’re right, at this moment you’re not at risk of being burned alive.
“But that doesn’t mean you’re at low risk. It’s insane to me that they weren’t thinking of it that way. They were thinking that somehow between those three towns away — and us — there was some sort of fire break that would magically prevent us from being burned alive.”
Agnel Philip, Joshua Kaplan, Joseph Sexton, Nina Martin, Lexi Churchill and Beena Raghavendran contributed reporting.
Full article available via the link supplied, above.
“Jeremy Konyndyk said he saw a devastating lack of urgency in the White House’s approach to the pandemic.”
Retrospectively we could all improve our actions after the fact like Monday morning quarterbacks. However, if one looks at the time line one would ask themselves what happened in those early days.
The Democrats were spending their time trying to change the 2016 election results via the route of impeachment. That occupied most of the nation.
While the Senate was “trying” the case Trump banned Chinese travellers to the objection of Democrats and the MSM. That was significant action and brave because he was pummeled by the opposition and called a racist and stupid for his action. Democratic politics enterred the playing field trying to disrupt any positive action the President took even if it involved the Corona Virus. A few days later the President was found innocent and the Democrats along with the media focused on their displeasure with the results.
‘“Dishonesty…Is Always an Indicator of Weakness”: Tucker Carlson on How He Brought His Coronavirus Message to Mar-a-Lago’
“The Fox News host believes that an administration (and GOP, and Democrats, and media) obsessed with impeachment couldn’t help but see the coronavirus through a political lens. But COVID-19, he says, shouldn’t be political.”
BY JOE HAGAN
MARCH 17, 2020
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/tucker-carlson-on-how-he-brought-coronavirus-message-to-mar-a-lago
Blacks have turned in increasing numbers against Democrats
Many Youtube channels running commentaries on all things politics e.g. Andrew Gillum gay drug escort mess, are increasingly hostile to the DNC talking points
The Dems have lost the narrative because of their own fault: lying nonstop to Americans
Before list members start to repeat distorted news from the NYT I thought it might be good to post an explanation in advance.
New York Times editorial board spreads fake news about White House response to COVID-19
“A New York Times editorial board member has graduated from not understanding basic arithmetic to telling lies on social media about the White House’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.” …
https://jonathanturley.org/2020/03/15/american-university-professor-calls-for-trump-impeachment-over-the-coronavirus-response/comment-page-3/#comment-1931629
This is the Democratic Party:
https://www.thecollegefix.com/lgbtq-activists-demand-restrictions-on-harvard-laws-new-religious-freedom-clinic/
Allan said, “Well before the corona flu existed the President created the National Influenza Vaccine Task Force. He was visionary.”
While it’s commendable that Trump has taken a step in the right direction with this new influenza task force, COVID-19 isn’t “the flu” — and to call it “corona flu” is misleading, at best.
“A lot of people have been trying to underplay this, saying, ‘Oh, it’s the corona flu,'” said Dr. Daniel Griffin, a Columbia University infectious diseases specialist. “But if you get the flu, 99.9 percent of people are going to be just fine.”
“This Coronavirus Is Unlike Anything in Our Lifetime, and We Have to Stop Comparing It to the Flu”
“Longtime health reporter Charles Ornstein says that comparing the novel coronavirus to the flu is dangerously inaccurate.”
“Not one public health expert he trusts has called that comparison valid. Here’s why.”
by Charles Ornstein March 14, 5 a.m. EDT
https://www.propublica.org/article/this-coronavirus-is-unlike-anything-in-our-lifetime-and-we-have-to-stop-comparing-it-to-the-flu
“This Coronavirus Is Unlike Anything in Our Lifetime, and We Have to Stop Comparing It to the Flu”
…And your brain stops there. You can see the words and understand what they mean individually but you do not really comprehend what you read nor can you put together that information with all the other information out there.
The difference is not that this isn’t similar or in the same class as other “flu” diseases rather the risk of mortality could be far greater. Corona viruses have been around a long time and identified when we had the means to do so in the 1960’s. These viruses can attack the respiratory systems of humans and animals. They are given their name based on their features and presently vaccines are being created, perhaps quickly, because, though COVID-19 is new, it has structural features of other Corona Viruses that have been extensively researched.
The writer of the article is not virologist, epidemiologist, or infectious disease specialist. He is not specially trained in the field of medicine. He is a journalist that puts news together and reports it. In this case his intention is to alert the public to follow the guidelines being produced by the federal government and the states because of fear of hospital overloading and death. He is not saying that COVID-19 belongs in a different class or is a totally new virus having no similarities to other previous viruses we have faced.
Your mindset is looking for similar words to what you want to hear but not similar knowledge. I don’t object to his reporting because he is talking to the lay public though he should recognize that some people might misunderstand some of what he says. That doesn’t matter to the writer because he is advocating that everyone should keep their distance and in that way he is effective.
The present threat of this virus that we are able to deal with has to do with hospital overloading because it appears it is spreading faster than it can be managed. If it spread slower hospital overloading would not be such a problem. Take note we have had hospital overloading from “flu” illnesses in the past but the fear is that this will be greater. Dr. Fauci separates this infectious disease from the others of its type because some of the data indicates it is 10 times deadlier and it has a faster transmission rate. We don’t know for sure but precautions are in order despite my prediction made earlier that in the US less will die from COVID-19 this year in the US than will have died from all other flu put together.
Part of the nature of this flu is that it moves so fast that the people he interviewed said things one day that were not valid the next but the reporting doesn’t deal with that aspect because the writer is trying to get his story out in the midst of rapidly changing events.
This portion of one sentence you stated is true and should be repeated over and over on this list. “it’s commendable that Trump has taken a step in the right direction with this new influenza task force”
“The writer of the article is not virologist, epidemiologist, or infectious disease specialist. He is not specially trained in the field of medicine. ” -Allan
Nor is Allan.
‘This portion of one sentence you stated is true and should be repeated over and over on this list. “it’s commendable that Trump has taken a step in the right direction with this new influenza task force”’ -Allan
Here’s the full sentence:
While it’s commendable that Trump has taken a step in the right direction with this new influenza task force, COVID-19 isn’t “the flu” — and to call it “corona flu” is misleading, at best.
“Nor is Allan.”
Anonymous the Stupid, you don’t know what anyone else on the blog is unless they told you but we all know what you are, STUPID.
Newsflash:
Allan is not a virologist, epidemiologist, or infectious disease specialist. He’d like people to think he is, but he’s not.
And we know what Allan is: AN IDIOT, who so doesn’t want to be one.
Sad, but true.
Flu:
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19):
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/
Allan has an inherited “natural ability” for this “corona flu” stuff, doncha know — just like Trump.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/coronavirus-vs-the-flu-the-difference-between-a-1-and-0-1-fatality-rate-is-huge/
“Coronavirus vs. the Flu: The Difference Between a 1% and 0.1% Fatality Rate Is Huge”
By JOHN MCCORMACK
March 14, 2020 8:24 PM
Anonymous the Stupid, you are unable to concentrate on one thought. You were wrong and falsely believe that you are proving things with your citations. No one is claiming that COVID-19 isn’t more virulent but you are trying to prove something but you don’t know how to go about it.
Un, no, Anonymous wasn’t wrong…, but the blog-idiot Allan is squirming and so wants to be right.
The only person trying to “prove something” is Allan the Idiot.
Anonymous the Stupid I provide my opinion along with data that is verifiable. You provide Stupidity.
You’re an idiot, Allan. Keep blabbering, as we know you will. It’s what you do best.
“disproven Russian collusion”. Turley, I’m ashamed for you. You’ve sunk to the level of a Fox News pundit. The extent of Trump’s involvement with and control by Russia has never been explored BECAUSE TRUMP REFUSED TO COOPERATE. He won’t disclose his financials. Mueller had no evidence directly from Trump upon which to base any conclusions about collusion because he refused to be interviewed, he refused to produce documents, and because Giuliani answered interrogatories with incomplete and misleading responses that he refused to amend or supplement. Trump’s refusal to allow investigation into his ties with Russia alone should be grounds for impeachment, but the Republicans, who know they are losing power, won’t allow him to be removed, even though this crisis has exposed the depth and extent of Trump’s ignorance and incompetence. Turley: you are merely repeating a Fox News talking point by falsely claiming that Trump’s involvement with Russia was “disproven”. Trump did the same thing with the House investigation into his leveraging of military aid to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on the Bidens. 48 U.S. Senators, including one Republican, voted to remove him.
Let’s talk about people in the US dying and getting sick, plus people like me losing the value of their stock portfolios due to Trump’s incompetence and deceit. He said: there are 15 cases, but soon there’d be 0. There are thousands, and the number grows daily and will keep growing until it peaks. Blunting this peak and preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed is the reason for shutting down businesses, schools, churches, restaurants and bars. He said the infections would be gone by April, based on nothing, and that we’d have a vaccine “very soon”, which Dr. Fauci corrected–we’re looking at a year to 18 months. He said that COVID-19 was a “hoax”, which he tried to walk back later by claiming that Democrats are politicizing this crisis, and that was a hoax. However, that’s not what he said, and the tragedy is that some people actually believe him because Fox News has proselytized them into believing that main stream media cannot be trusted. It is hard to get people to change their routines in the best of circumstances, but people will not change their behavior if they have doubts, and Trump has sowed the seeds of doubt about the seriousness of this crisis for no reason other than his own stupidity and arrogance. After refusing tests from the WHO, he also said that “anyone who wants a test can get a test”. Another complete lie. There won’t be tests for everyone who wants one for several weeks or maybe months. Since people infected with the virus can spread it to others before they are symptomatic, the only way to blunt the numbers of cases is to require people to stay home to prevent community spread. The stock market is in free-fall, schools, churches, U.S. businesses, restaurants and bars are shut down for the foreseeable future, and airlines are canceling flights. Store shelves are empty of essentials, including meat, canned goods, paper goods, sanitizers, dairy, and frozen foods. Trump didn’t cause the virus, but he has made the response exponentially worse by stoking fear due to his endless lying, and this has caused people to fear the worst and hoard essentials. The market has set records for volatility. Trump disbanded the rapid response team, but denies knowing anything about it, and specifically refuses to accept responsibility for his errors. How much more incompetence and unfitness for office should be required to remove someone as toxic and dangerous as Trump? TRUMP IS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT.
Natch, “existential threat’ to who?
what exactly do you mean by that, hmmm?
Existential threat to America–not just our values and our institutions, but our very health and well-being as well as our economic security. He cheated his way into the White House with the help of a hostile foreign government, he tried to cheat to obtain re-election by withholding aid to an ally in exchange for smearing his political opponent, and he has tried to bluff his way out of this crisis by lying about the risk, the severity and length of time we are vulnerable, so no one trusts him. Trouble is, COVID-19 isn’t a Trumpster.
Existential threat to America–not just our values and our institutions, but our very health and well-being as well as our economic security.
No, Natacha. He just lives rent-free in your head, and your mind is demonstrably disordered.
And Natacha “lives rent-free in your head and your mind is demonstrably disordered.”
Looks like Andrew Gillum is going to pray the gay away.
==========
Former Florida candidate for governor Andrew Gillum has disclosed he’s entering a rehabilitation facility, saying he fell into alcohol abuse after losing his bid for the state’s highest office
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Former Florida candidate for governor Andrew Gillum disclosed Sunday that he is entering a rehabilitation facility, saying he had fallen into a depression and alcohol abuse after losing his bid for the state’s highest post.
The Democrat’s statement came days after Gillum was named in a South Florida police report Friday that said he was “inebriated” and initially unresponsive in a hotel room along with a male companion where authorities found baggies of suspected crystal methamphetamine.
Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor who ran for governor in 2018, was not charged with any crime. The Miami Beach police report said Gillum was allowed to leave the hotel for home after he was checked out medically.
Gillum said in his statement Sunday night that he resolved to seek help after conversations with his family and deep reflection, calling the decision “a wake-up call for me.”
Bretibart
Looks like Andrew Gillum is going to pray the gay away.
No, it doesn’t look like that. He’s just incommunicado. Reading comprehension. It’s great stuff.
While we’re at it, ‘pray the gay away’ is not a formulation commonly used by evangelical ministries, but by detractors of such ministries.
“Andrew Gillum has disclosed he’s entering a rehabilitation facility, saying he fell into alcohol abuse after losing his bid for the state’s highest office”
Typical excuse for a leftist. Someone else caused the problem ‘which would never have occured, but for’… Expect upon leaving rehabillitation the left to applaud and to say what an outstanding and moral person he is. He will feel he is a better person for it and better than those that never experienced the terrible problems he experienced that were beyond his control.
In other words expect a crock of sh!t.