A constitutional crisis lies dead ahead. It looks to be a confrontation between the House and the President. It will occur when Adam Schiff demands the content of phone calls between Trump and other world leaders, including Putin.
“Congress is determined to get access to U.S. President Donald Trump’s calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee [Adam Schiff] said on Sunday [9/29/2019], citing concerns the Republican leader may have jeopardized national security.”
Schiff’s demand collides with executive privilege. Schiff at a minimum would have to demonstrate the pertinence of his demands to the justice of the impeachment case. This would require testimony by Deep State enemies of Trump. And that’s exactly what Schiff is now calling for. He’s openly encouraging anti-Trump whistleblowers to come forward.
What we have before us is a second virulent coup d’état carried on without guns but with equally powerful weapons. There has to be immense hatred of Trump and his policies for this to unfold as it is doing. And there is such immense hatred. We have seen it for 3 years now. This remains a dangerous threat to Trump. But even more is it a threat to the country, because such Democrat attacks completely divide the country; and that has enormous political and economic consequences. Democrats are destabilizing the entire country.
Trump will not reveal these calls, and he should not do so. Doing so will bring his and any presidency to a halt. It will destroy the separation of powers, make Congress the ruling branch of government, and emasculate the presidency. It will destroy the Constitution. Schiff is demanding the Constitution’s destruction.
Foreign leaders would never again be able to speak to a president in confidence. His role in foreign affairs would be destroyed. It’s a practical impossibility for hundreds of members of Congress or even select committees to carry on foreign relations by dealing with foreign leaders.
The resulting impasse will likely be settled by a standoff with no resolution or by a Supreme Court decision. The possibilities depend on politics that are extremely hard to forecast. That fact may induce Democrats to restrain Schiff and back off such an unreasonable demand. We shall see.
But if they go ahead with it and make formal demands upon Trump, he must refuse to comply. Conversations among heads of state involve extremely complex situations that are dynamic. They are delicate. One may say something for tactical, political, diplomatic or strategic reasons; one may have in mind a complex game. These talks are kept secret for good reasons. One can only imagine the immense damage done to ongoing relations and negotiations if the likes of the Democratic slate of presidential contenders get a hold of private conversations. They will pull all sorts of statements out of context as they have done with the Trump-Zelensky conversation.
1:28 pm on September 29, 2019
