But that's just my little, personal drama. The much larger drama took place in Helsinki this morning, when our president, Donald J. Trump, avowed his love for Putin over the information available from our Intelligence communities, which had resulted in several indictments for tampering with our electoral process. If you are among those who are struggling to keep your cool amid this mind-boggling development, I know how you feel.
Our Constitution states that a President "shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors." Needless to say, I googled those terms in order to better understand what might happen from this point on. Apparently, I was not the only one. Earlier this afternoon, dictionary.com tweeted out definitions of "patriot" and "traitor" after the site was inundated with requests for definitions. According to dictionary.com, a patriot is "a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country." A traitor is "a person who commits treason by betraying his or her country." You pick which one tRump is.
There are several examples of high crimes and misdemeanors, including perjury of oath, abuse of authority, dereliction of duty, and unbecoming conduct. I think a good case can be made for tRump's behavior this week as being treasonous. It seems, however, that the Founders were somewhat intentionally vague as to whether or not a sitting president can be accused of being treasonous. "Senators are urged to look into their hearts -- rather than at constitutional scholarship -- to decide whether perjury and obstruction of justice warrant removal." Well, I know how I would vote . . .
Benjamin Franklin suggested that the power of impeachment and removal was necessary for those times when the Executive "rendered himself obnoxious," and the Constitution should provide for the "regular punishment of the Executive when his conduct should deserve it." If there was ever a case for a parsing of this directive, it would be now. Obnoxious? I think so. Deserving of punishment? Absolutely.
Finally, treason is a crime "committed by a person owing allegiance to the United States who . . . adheres to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort." Putin won this round. There's no way around that reality.
As of this writing, Jeff Flake (R - AZ), Paul Ryan (R - Wisconsin), John McCain (R - AZ), and Richard Burr (R - NC) have issued statements deploring the president's behavior today. I hope that by the time you are reading this, many more will have joined the chorus singing "Treason!" And let's just hope that this (and Mueller's investigation) leads to the removal of this clown who is destroying America. Our democracy depends on it.
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