Billy Long: Democrats are using fantasies over facts to remove President Trump from office

(From Seventh District Congressman Billy Long)

Ever since President Trump was elected, Democrats have been calling for his impeachment.

Their next move should be having ‘Defeating Hillary Clinton’ added to Bribery, Treason and other High Crimes and Misdemeanors as impeachable offenses. That’s what this is all about after all - overturning the results of the 2016 Presidential election. 

The Democrats have blatantly lied to the American people to justify their position. 

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff not only lied about having direct evidence of wrongdoing during the Mueller probe, he also completely made up what the transcript of President Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president said and had prior knowledge of the whistleblower complaint before it was filed even though he explicitly stated otherwise on national TV. 

With these lies and deception, the Democrats have dug in to their position. They will use fantasies over facts to remove President Trump from office.

Since Speaker Pelosi announced her “formal” impeachment inquiry, absolutely nothing about it has been formal. 

When the House of Representatives decided they were going to move forward on impeaching Presidents Nixon and Clinton, there was a vote by the full House to authorize an impeachment inquiry, and in the case of President Clinton, the minority was given subpoena power. 

This time, through a televised announcement, Speaker Pelosi decided to ignore precedent and open an impeachment inquiry unilaterally without granting the minority subpoena power.

Having skipped the first step in a formal impeachment inquiry, Speaker Pelosi has now instructed the relevant committees to begin investigating which charges should be laid out in articles of impeachment. 

In this sense, the House of Representatives acts like a grand jury, gathering information to see whether or not they should level charges. Once the House decides on the charges to include in the articles of impeachment, the full House of Representatives will vote on them.

If a majority of representatives vote to pass the articles of impeachment, the Senate puts the President on trial with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding. After the evidence has been laid out, the Senate will then vote to convict the President. If two-thirds of senators vote to convict, the President is removed from office.

Since the very beginning of Trump’s presidency, the Democrats have made their intentions clear. They do not want to legislate, they only want to obstruct. They have inserted poison pills into bipartisan legislation, dragged on the Mueller probe, and are now pushing for impeachment over a phone call with the Ukrainian president that had no quid pro quo and was not a crime. If there is one thing they have made clear, its that it's their way or the highway.

I hoped that with the conclusion of the Mueller probe, Democrats would come to the table and work with Republicans and President Trump to pass important bipartisan legislation for the American people. Unfortunately, this isn’t the path they have chosen. 

There is no doubt that impeachment will consume Washington until the 2020 election at the very least. I hope that through all of this, we are still able to do our jobs for the American people and govern.