Napolitano: Trump’s Behavior is ‘Criminal and Impeachable’ — And His ‘Allusions to Violence are Palpably Dangerous’
Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano argued in a column and video published on FoxNews.com Thursday morning that President Donald Trump’s “criminal behavior” with regard to Ukraine is impeachable, and that his threats against the whistleblower are dangerous.
The column opens by noting that “the criminal behavior to which Trump has admitted is much more grave than anything alleged or unearthed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and much of what Mueller revealed was impeachable,” before outlining the specifics of the Ukraine scandal currently presenting an existential threat to his administration.
He later calls out the specific language used by Trump towards the unnamed whistleblower:
Trump has also admitted to accusing the as-yet publicly unnamed whistleblower of treason, and suggesting that the whistleblower and those who have helped him are spies and ought to be treated as spies were in “the old days” (Trump’s phrase) – that is, by hanging.
The president’s allusions to violence are palpably dangerous. They will give cover to crazies who crave violence, as other intemperate words of his have done. His words have already produced offers of “bounties” in return for outing and finding the whistleblower.
Trump also suggested that his impeachment would produce a second American Civil War. This language is a dog whistle to the deranged.
But it is Napolitano’s summation in the video, embedded above via FoxNews.com, that will likely raise the most eyebrows. The Fox News analyst recaps the story, including the important context of Russia, Crimea, and U.S. Congress approved aid that was held up by President Trump, “which arguably” was in return for digging up dirt on Trump’s political opponent.
Napolitano says plainly “that was a violation of federal law,” then dropped the hammer. “That is an impeachable offense. That is what the Democrats are seeking to investigate.”
He then mentioned the debate of who’s actions were worse, those made by Joe Biden or Donald Trump, which he dismissed as “these are arguments made by the president’s supporters.”
He finished by offering advice to Trump on how to handle the inquiry, saying that, instead of acting like a “frenetic lawyer on television trying to make Joe Biden look worse, the president should present a principled defense if he has one, because the Democrats have a lot of evidence against him.
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