Not how it works: GOP lawmaker hopes to prevent Trump's impeachment by toppling Nadler
Lance Gooden, a freshman House Republican from Texas, introduced a nonsensical measure to oust Rep. Jerry Nadler from the House Judiciary Committee.
Freshman GOP House member Lance Gooden (R-TX) decided Tuesday would be a great time to try to remove the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). It’s the latest in a series of increasingly desperate moves from House Republicans who now realize they’re staring down the barrel of an impeachment vote.
Gooden issued a short statement saying that Nadler had said he was “impeaching the president — right now” and was therefore violating the law because the House didn’t authorize the action back in July.
“In recent days Democrats have sanctimoniously declared their allegiance to the rule of law. I encourage them to follow those rules and hold Chairman Nadler accountable for breaking them,” he said.
Gooden called Nadler’s comments an “attempted coup against a duly-elected, sitting president.”
“I urge the Majority to move immediately to have him stripped of his chairmanship and that any accomplices on the Judiciary Committee not be considered as a replacement,” he said.
Gooden’s claim is nonsensical at best. The quote from Nadler came from last week, when he was asked about whether he would begin the impeachment process against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Nadler said he wouldn’t because “[w]e have our hands full with impeaching the president right now and that’s going to take up our limited resources and time for a while.” Of course, that didn’t mean that Nadler had somehow unilaterally seized the reins and started impeachment proceedings without the necessary consent. Rather, it was Nadler explaining that the possibility of one impeachment was enough.
But Gooden is a back-bencher with strong loyalty to Trump. On his Facebook page, he complains about “fake news” and on his House website, he waxes rhapsodic about his “unwavering support of President Trump’s pro-America agenda.” It isn’t surprising he’d try to make more of a name for himself by saying that Nadler is breaking the law and calling the mere possibility of impeachment proceedings an “attempted coup.” This is what happens when one party comes to believe that it deserves power no matter what it does: Following the rule of law to rein that party in is seen as improper.
Now, of course, Gooden’s worst fears have come true and the Democratic majority in the House is actually unified in moving forward with impeachment. Looks like any concerns of impropriety have been neatly resolved — but certainly not the way Gooden would have hoped.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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