OPINION:
Christianity Today’s editor-in-chief Mark Galli penned a scathing commentary against President Donald Trump, accusing him of abusing his “political power” and saying he should be removed from his White House perch.
The mainstream media is loving this because it gives an appearance of Trump’s loss of the evangelicals. But Galli is wrong. And he’s hardly representative of the Christian view of this president.
Here’s what he wrote, in a piece titled “Trump Should Be Removed from Office,” posted at ChristianityToday.com: “[F]acts … are unambiguous. The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. This is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.”
Except — the facts aren’t clear. Not in the way Galli means it, that is.
If the facts for impeachment were clear, there wouldn’t have been weeks of repetitious testimony in the House from hearsay witnesses who gave their best guesses into the president’s motivations and thoughts — best guesses that were then twisted by Democrats and their friends in the media to imply guilt and finally, convict of guilt.
“Nancy Pelosi: Trump has admitted to ’bribery’ in Ukraine,” the American people were told, by CNN in mid-November.
“Pelosi says Trump admitted to bribery,” the American public was sold, by CBS News in mid-November.
That was supposedly a “fact.” But it was a “fact” that curiously disappeared once the final impeachment articles were drawn.
Other flaws in the “facts” “are unambiguous” line of anti-Trump thought?
The Democrats’ ever-changing impeachment narrative, from Russia collusion to Russia obstruction of justice to Ukraine quid pro quo to Ukraine bribery to finally, in final written form, obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. The Democrats’ initial promise that impeachment should be bipartisan — followed by failure — followed by the Democrats’ Stalin-esque explanation that the only reason impeachment wasn’t bipartisan was because the Republicans wouldn’t hop aboard the impeachment bandwagon.
And the biggie of all biggie clues of this entire circus-slash-charade-slash-fabricated nature of this whole impeachment process: The Democrats tipped their hands early on, pre-inauguration, that impeachment was their goal. The Democrats admitted they were going to impeach at all costs, hunt for impeachable offenses at all costs — before Trump even had time to warm his White House seat.
Evangelical doesn’t mean unthinking.
Christianity doesn’t mean mindless.
In between, of course, there was the dark-of-night police state storming of Roger Stone’s home, the ridiculous chase-down of journalist Jerome Corsi, the eyebrow-raising inability of former special counsel Robert Mueller to remember what he put in his own report.
And now Pelosi doesn’t want to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate?
After all these weeks of testimony, months of leftist protest against this president, years of accusations and innuendos and attacks — Pelosi wants to hold up the process?
Galli is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
He’s letting the president’s Twitter feed cloud his judgment. He’s allowing his personal distaste for what he perceives as this president’s moral failings interfere with his logic.
“[T]his president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration,” Galli wrote. “His Twitter feed alone — with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies and slanders — is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.”
But disliking Trump the person is not cause to call for his removal from office.
Impeachment is serious business; convicting and removing a president from office, even more serious.
And it’s impossible to look at the full context of this president’s rise to power, at his near-three years of leadership — at the viciousness of the left and the determined quest of the Democrats to impeach at all costs — and conclude anything but: Trump’s takedown has been the be-all and end-all goal of the globalist elitists from Day One.
Trump’s takedown has been plotted by his political opponents since he announced his run for office.
But after all that: Democrats still have nothing. They still have nothing but accusation and inflammatory rhetoric and political posturing and media hysteria and slight-of-hand ploys aimed at bearing false witness to Trump’s guilt.
On this, the writing on the wall is clear.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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