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Deconstructed

The Case For (and Against) Impeaching Trump

Deconstructed

The Intercept

News

4.84.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2019

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election didn’t provide the smoking gun on collusion with Russia that many were expecting, but it did paint a picture of a President willing to repeatedly, brazenly, and unashamedly obstruct justice at every opportunity. It also suggests that Trump was restrained from more serious criminality only by the timely intervention of underlings and cabinet officials determined to save him from his own worst impulses. So where does all this leave the conversation on impeachment? With Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, calls are escalating for action to remove Trump for office. While some see a moral imperative for Congress to act, others point out the unlikelihood of a Republican-controlled Senate taking such action seriously. On this week’s Deconstructed, Mehdi Hasan talks with Tom Steyer, the hedge fund Billionaire who launched the “Need to Impeach” campaign in 2017, and with Vox.com editor Ezra Klein, who thinks political considerations make impeachment a bad idea.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

If in fact, we don't hold this president to account, we will have normalized a president

0:06.5

who ignores the law, who ignores the Constitution, and who ignores the American people.

0:11.7

And to me, that would be a tragedy.

0:21.2

Welcome back to a new season of Deconstructed, I'm Mehdi Hassan.

0:24.8

There's been a lot going on while we've been away for the past month, including a certain

0:28.2

report from a certain special counsel.

0:30.9

Where does the Mueller report leave the debate over impeachment?

0:33.9

I'll ask Tom Steyer, the billionaire Democrat funding, the need to impeach campaign that

0:39.0

seems to have Trump spooked.

0:41.3

I think that we have an obligation to make the case in front of the American people to

0:47.2

force those senators to confront their constituents and their conscience.

0:51.8

Then I'll speak to the well-known Liberal Journalist Ezra Klein, editor at large, Vox, who

0:56.3

thinks there's a big problem with impeachment.

0:58.6

The idea that you would not think about at all the polls or the public or building support

1:03.2

for it before you go into it because it's some kind of moral principle, I think, is wrong.

1:07.4

So on today's show, the case four, and against impeaching Donald Trump.

1:15.1

The polls show that Americans don't want to impeach the president.

1:18.4

Even support for impeachment amongst Democratic voters is down in the wake of the Mueller report,

1:23.3

which Attorney General Bill Barr and the Republicans have spun as clearing Donald Trump of

1:28.1

any crimes.

1:29.1

No collusion, no obstruction.

1:31.3

I'm happy.

...

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