Trump's Best Case Against Impeachment

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

New York Times Opinion

New York Times, Journalism, News, Society & Culture, Ross Douthat

4.0 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2020

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump hasn't tried to mount a logical case against removing him from office. But what if they did? Ross Douthat channels an argument the White House could instead be making instead. Then, Ezra Klein, the founding editor of Vox and author of the new book “Why We’re Polarized,” joins Ross and David to discuss the roots, implications and future of America’s current era of partisan polarization. For background reading on this episode, visit nytimes.com/theargument.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Ross Douthand.
0:01.3	I'm David Leonhardt, and this is the argument.
0:05.3	This week, what is President Trump's best remaining impeachment defense?
0:12.8	I think the strategic failure by the Trump White House is the unwillingness to effectively
0:20.0	promise he won't do it again.
0:22.7	Then, can't we all just get along?
0:25.5	We're joined by Ezra Klein, who argues that America is destined to be polarized.
0:31.2	Race was what kept us for a period from being polarized, and not in a good way.
0:35.8	And finally, a recommendation.
0:38.8	The sea was gray and steely.
0:41.5	The waves were crashing.
0:43.8	And it was kind of fantastic.
0:44.9	Michelle is in Iowa this week reporting on the campaign, so Ross and I are on our
0:54.9	own, and we're going to start by talking about impeachment.
0:58.6	President Trump's primary defense, that there was no quid pro quo with Ukraine, largely
1:03.7	collapse this week.
1:05.4	News emerged that Trump had told John Bolton, a top former adviser, that Trump wanted
1:10.0	to freeze aid to Ukraine, unless that country investigated the Biden's.
1:15.5	Trump now seems to be relying on little more than partisan loyalty in order to be acquitted
1:19.9	in the Senate.
1:21.2	But if Trump cared more about facts, he actually would have a defense available to him.
1:26.6	You might not find a persuasive, I might not find a persuasive, but Ross does.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New York Times Opinion, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of New York Times Opinion and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.