I've now had the chance to go through the House Impeachment Report. My take thus far is it is a very solid, comprehensive piece of work. Amazing they produced it with this velocity. Specifically, I'd isolate a few things:
1. The most impt language is in 1st sentence: the Committee Report details the evidence gathered “THUS FAR.” They are clearly laying down a marker that the investigation continues & that the President is bent on obstructing it/trying to gag ExecBr employees from telling the truth
2. Page 1 then begins exactly where my book IMPEACH does, that our Founders feared a President who would put his personal interests over those of the American people. That’s what Impeachment is all about.
3. I love how the Report right away centers everything on the memo/partial transcript of the Trump/Zelensky July 25 phone call. That call alone is beyond damning, despite the President's phantom legal scholars he claimed today who supposedly labeled the call beautiful and perfect
4. The Report sets the right tone, saying impeachment isn't something they seek lightly. But that this is precisely why our Founders put it in the Constitution.
5. The Report then does a really good job explaining how the President couldn't say he was unaware of the problems in seeking help from a foreign govt in a presidential campaign. It nicely incorporates the 2016 Russian help and explains how Trump was on notice of the dangers here
6. Most impt, the Report explains that Trump has said he'd do it again, asking China for dirt on Biden, too. It destroys the "wait until the next election" argument. That is waiting for an election the President has tried to cheat in, and said he wants to continue to cheat in.
7. The Report does a fabulous job of explaining the facts, and points out that there is very little that Trump is even contesting about them. Instead, they just think we should "get over it."
8. In what is a devastating section of the Report, a lengthy 100pp analysis of Trump's obstruction of justice. This is a really fabulous job. My favorite is pp206-207, where they show that no President in American history has ever done what Trump has done here.
9. These pages are really impt. They show Trump has gone way beyond Nixon, and his claims would destroy our constitutional separation of powers.Even if Repubs are really fine with a President who tries to get help from a foreign govt in his reelection, they cannot be fine w/this
10. If a President can unilaterally say "I'm going to gag witnesses and info from Congress in impeachment proceedings b/c I feel they are unfair" we are reading these clauses out of the Constitution.
11. And we are back where we started, at page 1: it would undo the only check on a President who abuses his powers and puts his interests over the American people, impeachment.
12.Trump got away w/obstruction in Mueller b/c that was criminal& his guy Barr cleared him. This is difft,it's a crime against the American people. He doesn't have an AG to protect him. Every American must fear what Trump has done. If he can do it, so can President Warren/Sanders
