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John Bonifaz, longtime leader on impeachment and election integrity, calls on House to impeach Trump.Bonifaz is a veteran advocate for the Constitution and the impeachment powers of Congress, and has been on the front lines of the battles for honest elections in the US. He is co-founder of Free Speech for People, and co-author–with Ron Fein and Ben Clements– of The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump, which was published in 2018.
Your humble host and Bonifaz disagree on the impact of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 elections, and strongly agree that Trump has been vulnerable to impeachment since Inauguration Day, for his open violation of the Emoluments clauses. Further, we agree that Michael Cohen’s guilty plea and Congressional testimony offer ample evidence of obstruction of justice.
We discuss some of Robert Mueller’s self-imposed restrictions (like accepting the rule a sitting president shouldn’t be indicted, and his failure to depose or interview Trump) and compare it to Nixon’s “limited hangout” defense. Bonifaz is clear that members of Congress took an oath to uphold the Constitution, and that prevails over any political considerations.
We talk about the resistance to impeachment among the Democratic leaders and membership, and challenge Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues to do their duty.
We also discuss the Democrats’ failure to address GOP election meddling in 2016, and Bonifaz offers comparisons to 2004 in Ohio, where John Kerry refused to contest a stolen election. Bonifaz was actively involved in post-election challenges in 2004 and 2016, and shares some valuable insights.