The remarks were problematic because they were removed from any assessment of the grounds on which Trump should be impeached and seemed to be motivated by pure political disagreement. If an effective case for impeachment is going to be made, it will happen because Democrats will be able to say to their Republican colleagues and the American people that the evidence leads to that result. They need to be able to tell citizens that, separate from all of Trump’s awful policies, he has committed “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Impeachment is not an applause line; it’s a verdict.
Democrats need to understand that, to the extent cursing and incivility works for Donald Trump, it is because many of the policies he promotes flow from vulgarity, indecency and a nihilistic paranoia about government and human beings. It is no coincidence that the man who called on his crowds to “knock the crap” out of a protester is unmoved by the moral implications of a policy of family separation at the border. It is no surprise that a man who can flippantly accuse his political opponents of crimes is wishy-washy on the killing of a journalist. Trumpian rhetoric can’t just be retooled for the common good.
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