President Trump’s September Surprise By Angelo Codevilla
Imagine if, on the evening of Tuesday, September 4, President Trump delivered the following speech from the White House . . .
My fellow Americans,
Traditionally, this is the day when the country ends summer fantasies, gets back to work and to school—when we get serious. And it is high time for our political system to follow suit and get serious. Tonight we start.
Two months from now, we will vote for 435 members of the House of Representatives, 34 senators, and countless other officials. Since the last election, we’ve been bombarded with accusations from government officials acting in semi-secrecy and through friendly collaborators in the media that your votes were somehow tainted, and the election results were illegitimate.
Sadly, this outrageous campaign has abetted the Democratic Party’s near-unanimous refusal to accept the results of our election. Aptly, they call what they have been doing “the Resistance.” This open cabal of officials, of the media, of corporate America’s leadership, these upscale lords of the universe, are trying to overturn the results of the last presidential election.
They aim to convince you that you are stupid, unsophisticated, and at least a little racist. In short, they want you to know that you can’t govern yourselves as well as they would have you governed. They tell you that you must vote for Democrats, any and all Democrats, because if enough are elected, they will impeach Donald Trump who is responsible in part for the stupidity, racism, sexism, etc. that led you to vote as you did in 2016.
For what will they impeach me? For having done exactly what? They won’t say directly. They want an endless investigation producing more leaks and suggestions that the worst of the allegations about me may be true. And they want elections to be run on the basis of their smoke and mirrors campaigns.
But it’s time to get serious. That’s why, tonight, I’m telling them what Muhammed Ali told George Foreman after he had absorbed his best punches: Now it’s my turn.
So, tonight, hear this.
Robert Mueller, you’re fired. As of noon Eastern Daylight Time on September 5, along with every person you have hired, you are no longer an employee of the United States. The same goes for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. I am canceling all security clearances of yours and of theirs as of that hour. By that moment, you and they will have delivered to the Justice Department’s inspector general every copy of every document connected with your investigation of anything having to do with the 2016 election, and every electronic instrument containing such documents. After that moment, your possession of any such documents, in any form, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Second, in the exercise of my authority under Article II of the Constitution, I hereby declassify, as of noon Eastern Daylight Time on September 5, any and all documents in the possession of the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the FBI, the CIA, and the National Security Agency relating in any way to the election of 2016.
The attorney general, the secretary of state, the director of central intelligence, and the secretary of defense shall instruct officials under them to put all such documents online, without redactions. If any of these officials believe that the publication of an item in any of these documents could get anybody killed, they will have to convince me to redact it.
Before now, charges and countercharges were made on the basis of speculation and partial leaks about what these documents contain. This has divided Americans needlessly while giving unfair advantages to insiders and to those connected with them. From now on, as a consequence of my order, the New York Times’ reporters will have access to absolutely everything. But so will everybody else. People will be able to make up their own minds on the basis of information available equally to all. That’s democracy.
Third, I invite any and all members of the House of Representatives who have spoken of impeaching me to draw up those articles of impeachment and to introduce them.
Calling for impeachment is the only responsible thing that the Democratic Party’s “Resistance” has done. If you’re trying to overturn the results of the last presidential election, trying to impeach the president is the constitutionally correct way to do it—especially just prior to congressional elections. If the American people don’t want me as their president now, all they have to do is vote for the would-be impeachers.
So tonight I ask the speaker of the House to bring these articles to the floor, to give their proponents time to promote them, and then bring them to a vote before the November elections. That way, the American people can judge for themselves whether I am the bum who should be thrown out, or whether these Washington insiders are the bums.
I believe—and I hope that you will agree—that a debate on impeachment followed by votes prior to the congressional elections, based on everybody having access to all information, is a fairer, better, more American way forward than an unending parade of innuendo and leaks based on improperly classified information.
What I am doing tonight is, unquestionably, within my power as president of the United States. The Constitution directly empowers only one executive official: the president. All other executive officials are responsible to the people through the president, who is elected by the people in the several states.
Since the president is the only official with a direct responsibility to the people through elections, the president must have the power to dismiss officials when they do not act as the president wishes. In fact, it is the president’s duty to fire officials who are not in accord with him since he was elected, and they were not, to represent the solemn will of the people.
The existence and forbearance of that absolute presidential power and duty are what makes subordinate officials responsible, and hence democratically legitimate. If the American people don’t like any particular firing, they can fire the president through impeachment. That’s how it works. I fired James Comey, and I just fired Mueller and Rosenstein, as is my constitutional right. I did it because they joined “the Resistance,” trying to overturn the results of the last election by manipulating classified information and the justice system. They say they want the law. That’s what they are getting—and are going to get.
I am taking the relevant information out of the hands of insiders and putting it into the hands of all Americans. I am taking this struggle out of corrupt institutions, and putting it right back into open, constitutional channels. Anybody want impeachment? I say, bring it on!
I’m sure that the lords of the swamp will find something wrong with this. But I’m confident that most Americans will regard it as good common sense.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.
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