The Squad (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar) called for immediate impeachment of President Trump, but the Speaker of the House Madam Nancy Pelosi, said not yet. Then some of the Democratic presidential candidates like Elizabeth Warren added their voices to the calls for impeachment. Mrs. Pelosi responded with “hold on, it is not time”. More members of the Democratic Party joined in the chorus of demand for impeachment and Mrs. Pelosi and her leadership team remained adamant, saying that they needed Mr. Trump to be impeached and sent to prison successfully. They needed incontrovertible evidence for impeachable offences like collusion with Russia or another foreign government or high offenses and misdemeanors. They hoped that Mr. Muller’s report when it comes out would provide the evidence.
Mr. Muller’s report came out and provided the needed evidence but not in the clear language that would satisfy the dogmatic Mrs. Pelosi and her leadership team. They said, “not yet. Have patience”. They believed that a president like Mr. Trump would soon overplay his hands and that patience was the key tool they needed. The public was getting weary of this argument and saw it as inability to act. Then the majority of the democratic caucus joined in the call for immediate impeachment.
Almost by coincidence it came out that the president had actually provided the much sought for evidence of collusion with a foreign leader to interfere with American elections to his benefit. It came out from a whistle blower in the government. The president tried to hide the evidence and conspired to cover up the particulars of Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who now represents what Mr. Putin was to be. This double evidence: committing a crime and covering-up were handed over to Mrs. Pelosi on a platter of gold.
Patience has indeed paid off.
What to do with the evidence?
The Igbo have a saying “Onye agbara ama n’ anuri; onye eboro okwe go” which can be translated as do not rejoice too much after you receive a tip until the accused pleads guilty. This advice is critical here as Mr. Trump and the Republican Party have yet to plead guilty. They have rolled out a strategy of discredit, doubt and delay. This will likely buy them time. And get them deep into the 2020 election cycle when the only agenda item will be election matters and hopefully impeachment agenda would be off the table.
Democrats must find a counter strategy that would be used to check mate Mr. Trump and the GOP. One such plan would be to exploit his weakness which is inability to keep his mouth shut and to stay away from his twitter account. He has already called the whistle blower a liar, doing a hatchet job, and a spy. He has vaguely threatened the whistle blower and suggested that in earlier times he would have been executed. Each time he goes on this route he ties himself in a naught. It is important to note that the inspector general has said that the whistle blower is credible, the Acting Director of National Security has said that the whistle blower is a patriot and done everything by the books. They have thus separated themselves from Mr. Trump. The more people in the intelligence support the whistle blower, the more the rank and file will and would be emboldened to collaborate his story.
Mrs. Pelosi needs to dig deeper quickly to discover more hidden stories and make them public before the people’s patience is exhausted.
One help they are getting is that Mr. Trump everyday shows evidence of panic, which means that Mrs. Pelosi is getting at him. His fight with his staff and firings indicate a troubled mind. His bragging shows a man that lacks confidence and his zig-zags in both domestic and foreign policy are hallmarks of a man going down quickly. Even as his support among his core constituency seems still strong.
Time will ultimately tell whether Mr. Pelosi will accomplish her objective of getting rid for America of a disturbed mind..
*** Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba wrote from Boston, Massachusetts.
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