Is there one rational person who honestly still questions whether Donald Trump should be impeached by the House, convicted by the Senate and removed immediately from the people’s house? The answer is obvious to everyone except crooks who operate in the same way as Trump operates.
When my good friend Dick Gregory was still here with us and Donald Trump and those around him had begun the really crazy stuff, Mr. Gregory, knowing my curiosity about nearly everything, told me all of the Trump craziness was white folks’ business and I should stay out of it. I really tried to do that, but as things got more chaotic, it became impossible for me not to at least comment on the chaos. Surely, Mr. Gregory would forgive me for not taking his advice just this one time. The lawyer part of me kept reminding me that silence gives consent!
Donald Trump ran a reckless campaign for president, and he has become even more reckless since he used Russian and whatever other unsavory help he could muster. Hardly a day has ever gone by when Donald Trump didn’t give the American people great cause for concern about what he might do to bring more shame upon our country. Trump’s behavior has become increasingly dangerous to our national security.
I closely watched his twisting and turning and observed his crude behavior at the United Nations a few days ago. Aside from being bored, it was painful to listen to him as he denigrated leaders of nations and spoke like a middle school bully. It’s hard to believe that a man who stood before the world three years ago and swore to defend and protect our country without shame has done so much to destroy everything we stand for. How do the people of any nation allow such abuse of the power of the office of president to repeat itself time after time without taking action to say, “Enough is enough”?
If Trump is not the epitome of a traitor to our country, then, as Rep. Barbara Jordan once said of another Republican president who decided to resign rather than face certain impeachment, “A president is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution. If the impeachment provision in the Constitution of the United States will not reach the offenses charged here, then perhaps that 18th-century Constitution should be a 20th-century paper shredder.”
She concluded her brilliant remarks by saying, “Has the president committed offenses, and planned, and directed and acquiesced in a course of conduct which the Constitution will not tolerate? That is the question. We know that. We know the question. We should now forthwith proceed to answer the question. It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.”
We’ve seen the misconduct over and over again. We, the people, are exhausted by the repeated and unpunished conduct. One presidential election has been stolen. Black people, brown people, native people, Muslims, women, Democrats, Africans, the disabled and so many of us have been denigrated so many times by Trump and his kind that we do not need a lot more investigations to show massive wrongdoing. We, the people are ready for a decision.
We need someone like Rep. Jordan today, but we’re grateful that Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to the conclusion that the time for impeachment is now. More than one-half of the members of the House of Representatives agree. As the days go by, Republicans who love the country more than they fear the scoundrel in the White House will find the courage to vote in favor of impeachment!
Williams is national president of the National Congress of Black Women and host of “Wake Up and Stay Woke” on WPFW-FM (89.3).