Who would have ever thought that the timing of everything is so unique in the political world. On one side, you have a president who has the possibility of being booted out of office, and on the other hand, a charismatic orchestration of divine opposition to that president.
Yes, this is yet another editorial on the impeachment — sorry to any of you who are reading this paper and thinking “ugh” — but needless to say I promise you this won’t be as political as you may think. This is rather a bit more of an observational post.
As you may know, President Donald John Trump has been impeached. If you kept your eyes peeled to the news, you might have caught a whiff of it back in December. Nancy Pelosi (CA, D), Speaker of the House of Representatives, has pushed and garnered enough votes on two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Whether you’re supportive of this move or in opposition to it, it’s pretty historical to say the least.
Pelosi announced just recently (as to when this was written) that the articles will proceed to the United States Senate. In fact, on Jan. 15, she whipped up a Justice League for the prosecution. As you can imagine, a team of litigators that ban together is equivalent to sharks circling its prey — perhaps Mr. Trump would need a “Dream Team” of his own.
You do have to admit, the timing is odd as President Donald Trump signed and saw approval of two of the largest trade deals, both can be argued as incredibly important for the U.S. economy. If you watched the signing of the new trade deal between U.S. and China you would notice that the Chinese delegation had to wait around for half an hour for the president to finish boasting about himself and his fellow colleagues. Odd? Yes.
The following day the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) passed in both houses of Congress, which was a clear victory for the POTUS. If you didn’t know, this is a game of what we call sneaking the ball — trust me, I play this game with my dog fairly often. Imagine you’re sitting at home and come across the articles of impeachment headlines across the TV being broadcast on CNN, but guess what? Flip to Fox News and the POTUS makes the largest announcement for the U.S. economy.
Which leads us to the impeachment. Let’s talk a bit about the Senate side of things. Here are a few requirements:
Be a U.S. senator.
Be present during the hearing.
Be quiet.
If you think about it, 100 U.S. senators actually present and doing their job is a miracle and 100 U.S. Senators not making a peep while the entire country, as well as much of the world, watches.
Now, four U.S. senators – who are Democratic presidential hopefuls – are completely off of the campaign trail for a week or two because of the impeachment hearings. Those Senators being Michael Bennet (D, CO), Amy Klobachar (D, MN), Bernie Sanders (I, VT), and Elizabeth Warren (D, MA).
Here is the next kicker, the Iowa caucus is on Feb. 3. This is a state that has proved to be very important in election history.
Sens. Sanders (20.1%, Monmouth University) and Warren (15.2%, Monmouth University) are currently at the top of the Iowa polls. With them away in Washington D.C., this would mean a presidential hopeful who is not a current U.S. senator can easily capitalize on Iowa. Yes, my political brain goes to the process of elimination they teach you in college logic class: former vice president Joe Biden has the upper hand in Iowa.
If the Senate impeachment proceedings go longer than two weeks, you may see a Bernie SADers. I’m not saying you will. I’m just saying you might. But, it sounds like the old guard Democrats want their party back. Can Pelosi and Biden be orchestrating this politically? Now I’m just starting rumors.
Bronsten Kossow is a resident of Kailua-Kona.
