Fox contributor: You can't impeach Trump because 'he won the election'

There have been a great many stupid things said in Trump’s defense, but Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren deserves special recognition for her thoughts on impeaching Trump.

On Wednesday’s edition of “Fox & Friends,” Lahren was asked about Sean Penn’s recent remark that Congress should impeach Trump, and her response was to claim that the process of becoming president makes one immune to impeachment.

“Well, if he was listening to the American people,” Lahren said, “he would understand that President Trump won the election, and the American people have spoken. The fact he wants to throw out there we should arbitrarily impeach Donald Trump. I would like to hear his reasoning behind that.”

Setting aside the paradoxical “logic” that a person who becomes president can’t be impeached because they became president, Lahren’s response ignores several other glaring facts.

Trump may have technically “won” the election, but he got three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton, which means the American people spoke for Hillary, not Trump.

And far from being “arbitrary,” Trump began giving reasons to impeach him from day one of his presidency. Many experts and commentators pointed out that Trump’s business conflicts put him in immediate violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

Within weeks of assuming office, Trump committed several offenses that would lead Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) to introduce articles of impeachment for obstruction of justice. Trump kept disgraced National Security Adviser Mike Flynn on the job for weeks after Flynn’s lies were known, tried to pressure then-FBI Director James Comey to end the investigation of Flynn, then fired Comey over the Russia investigation.

Since then, Trump has continued to engage openly in actions that former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks says could make an airtight obstruction of justice case against him.

And Rep. Al Green (D-TX) has also introduced articles of impeachment for Trump’s incitement of racism and bigotry, citing numerous examples that include Trump’s Muslim ban, Trump’s ban on transgender military personnel, Trump’s praise of Nazis as “very fine people,” and Trump’s slurring of majority-black nations as “shithole countries.”

Even Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has hinted that Trump would face impeachment if special counsel Robert Mueller is fired.

Lahren and Fox News might not like the fact that Trump can be impeached, but that doesn’t change the fact that people far more serious and consequential than Lahren believe there are more than sufficient grounds to do it.