By Andrea Shorter–
Let’s not get too far ahead by speculating and shot calling the turn of events leading to a now very likely impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.
First of all, thank you to each and every one of the eight openly LGBTQ House congressional members who signed on to hold this corrupt president accountable by agreeing that an official impeachment inquiry is due. Amidst widespread angst that an impeached and removed President Trump would pave the way for a President Pence, this small but mighty caucus put nation before party, and duty before politics, to make for a vastly growing majority vote to proceed as warranted.
Yes, if Trump is impeached and removed as president, Vice President Mike Pence would succeed him as president by constitutional decree. It’s a stomach-turning proposition.
Yet, that’s the order of things, right? Unless, of course, Pence’s alleged complicit involvement in aspects of the President’s—clear throat—revealed “alleged” high crimes, misdemeanors, and treasonous scheme to strong-arm and extort the newly elected novice and already literally embattled Ukrainian president into digging up or fabricating dirt on a former U.S. vice president—Joe Biden, the still top-tier front runner-ish Democratic opponent, chief representative of all things Obama-era, and consistently polled 2020 election winner over Trump—also urges investigation towards and ending in his impeachment, and removal from office.
What did the Vice President know? And when did he know it? What did he know of the developing schemes by the President and company to again enlist foreign intervention into U.S. elections before and/or after his curiously and suddenly cancelled trip to the Ukraine in May by the President’s order, apparently as part of the effort to intimidate Ukrainian officials into “playing ball” and eventually complying with Trump’s requests for favors thought to benefit his campaign for re-election—and attempting to exonerate Russia from its interference in the 2016 presidential elections—all while holding up congressionally approved $390 million military aid to Ukraine to defend and protect its sovereign and stricken statehood against aggressive Russian encroachment?
Under the developing circumstances, it might not prove too far-fetched that even the most remote notion that Vice President Pence would succeed as president might also be short-circuited should his suspected involvement in Trump’s most egregious abuses of presidential powers be revealed, such as the solicitation of foreign interference in U.S. elections, and the cover-up of evidence by abusing the classification system to hide transcriptions of the President’s call(s) to Ukrainian President Zelensky.
Again, not to get too far ahead of the now official impeachment inquiry afoot to oust arguably the worst and most dangerous president in U.S. history, but boy, wouldn’t it be grand if anti-LGBTQ Pence was also put out of commission as well?
These are some of the darkest, serious times for our nation. No matter one’s partisan persuasion, impeachment proceedings are not to be taken lightly under any circumstance. Still, one can hardly remain without some remote hope that the alleged involvement, awareness, and complicit-ness of this particular vice president will prove apt cause for his ouster as well. After all, he appears complicit and in praise of all of the horrors visited upon us by Trump. So, why not these latest revealed offenses?
There are clearly bigger fish to fry, but I do wonder what Pence thinks about Trump’s defensive remarks before a post U.N. Conference event for diplomats and career government workers: “I want to know who’s the person, who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy.” Trump continued, “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart, right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
Spies and traitors were executed, of course, ala Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in June 1953. As an apparent traitor to the cause of defending the U.S. against all enemies foreign and domestic, Trump should understand that such gruesome nostalgia would also include himself. His wannabe mob boss “snitches get stitches” rap sounds neither presidential, nor very Christian. Get that, Pence?
No doubt Vice President Pence and Mother, i.e. Mrs. Pence, are praying on all of this mess right now. Who knows? Maybe they can pray it all away.
Again, not to get too far ahead, but as events ping from pillar to post, developments could quite possibly move history past a President Pence to a President Pelosi. That’s the order of things. No doubt, there are many, many people praying on and for that, as well. Amen.
Andrea Shorter is a Commissioner and the former President of the historic San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women. She is a longtime advocate for criminal and juvenile justice reform, voter rights and marriage equality. A Co-Founder of the Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition, she was a 2009 David Bohnett LGBT Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
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