Ari Melber Wrecks Republicans For Abandoning Their Own Standards For Impeachment

Ari Melber wrecked Republicans on Monday for abandoning their previously-held standards for impeaching a president and instead choosing to protect Donald Trump – even after Robert Mueller detailed damning evidence against him.

All the MSNBC host had to do was roll the tape of GOP lawmakers attacking the conduct of former president Bill Clinton, which was far less incriminating than Trump’s unethical and criminal behavior laid out Mueller.

According to Melber, if Republican members of Congress stuck to their old impeachment standards, this issue wouldn’t be controversial at all. Impeachment proceedings would have already begun.

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The Republican impeachment hypocrisy on full display:

LINDSEY GRAHAM: “You don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic if this body determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role.”

CHUCK GRASSLEY: “We don’t want a president lying in office. We don’t want obstruction of justice.”

MITCH MCCONNELL: “The president has engaged in a consistent pattern and practice of obstruction of justice. The allegations are grave, the investigation is legitimate.”

JEFF SESSIONS: “I’m concerned about a president under oath being alleged to have committed perjury. … In America, the Supreme Court and the American people believe no one is above the law.”

1990s Republicans made a great case for impeaching Trump

Democrats in Congress are currently grappling with the politics of impeachment following the release of Mueller’s redacted report, but if they want to make the bipartisan case to America, all they have to do is roll the tape of their Republican colleagues.

With a Democratic president in the White House, the GOP repeatedly made the argument for impeachment – and they had far less damning evidence as a basis for it.

Now, with a president of the United States on record having sought to obstruct justice multiple times – not to mention his willingness to work with a foreign adversary to influence a presidential election – what the GOP said in the 1990s is especially true today.

Regardless of the politics, the evidence laid out in Robert Mueller’s report requires Democrats in Congress to take the constitutional step of impeaching Donald Trump, if not to remove him from office then to at least punish his corrupt and lawless presidency in the eyes of history.

Let Republicans defend their status as the party that gave this president a free pass as he trampled over the rule of law.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.