by George Rasley, CHQ Editor
Democrats have been plotting the impeachment of President Trump since the day after the 2016 election, but the idea of Christian conservative Mike Pence as President leaves many on the Left cold, so why not, as CNN opinion contributor Paul Callan put it, draw Vice President Pence into the impeachment maelstrom?
In Mr. Callan’s fantasy of how to make Nancy Pelosi President without having an election, Trump would be successfully impeached and then Pence would be knocked out of the presidential succession because he was a “co-conspirator” with the president in the non-existent quid pro quo of military aid contingent upon Ukraine investigating Joe and Hunter Biden.
RealClear Politics also recently reported an interview with Jill Wine-Banks, an MSNBC commentator who once served on the Watergate prosecution team, explaining on “AM Joy” with Far Left TV personality Joy Reid how Donald Trump and Mike Pence could both be impeached, leaving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as president.
And, right on cue, Pence is being pulled into the impeachment maelstrom.
As CNN and other outlets reported, US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland said yesterday in his testimony before Impeachment Czar Adam Schiff’s House Intelligence Committee that he offered Pence his view ahead of the September 1 Warsaw, Poland talks that included Ukraine President Zelensky.
“I mentioned to Vice President Pence before the meetings with the Ukrainians that I had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to the issue of investigations. I recall mentioning that before the Zelensky meeting,” Sondland testified.
However, Sondland did not describe in his opening statement Pence’s reaction when he raised his concerns. But, according to CNN’s Kevin Liptak, he later said Pence nodded in response. “The vice president nodded like you know he heard what I said and that was pretty much it as I recall,” Sondland testified.
Newsweek reported that Richard Painter, a truly deranged #NeverTrumper, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer in the administration of President George W. Bush, quickly waded in to suggest after Sondland’s testimony that not only President Donald Trump, but also Vice President Mike Pence should be impeached and removed from office.
“Sondland — in a last ditch effort to avoid going to the slammer for perjury – comes clean (at least partly). Trump is going down,” Painter tweeted as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testified before the House Intelligence Committee in the ongoing impeachment inquiry against Trump. “Senate Republicans need to demand his resignation TODAY!”
In a follow-up tweet reported by Newsweek, Painter wrote: “Game over. Send Trump home. Swear in Pence. Continue the investigation.” He then added in another post: “In a few weeks the only open question should be whether the evidence is sufficient for President Pence to be impeached by the House and removed by the Senate.”
Of course, like all the “evidence” justifying the impeachment of President Trump, there’s a major problem with Sondland’s testimony pulling Vice President Pence into the impeachment maelstrom: It never happened.
Marc Short, Chief of Staff to the Vice President, issued a statement after news of Sondland’s testimony broke, saying:
The Vice President never had a conversation with Gordon Sondland about investigating the Bidens, Burisma, or the conditional release of financial aid to Ukraine based upon potential investigations.
Ambassador Gordon Sondland was never alone with Vice President Pence on the September 1 trip to Poland. This alleged discussion recalled by Ambassador Sondland never happened.
Multiple witnesses have testified under oath that Vice President Pence never raised Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden, Crowdstrike, Burisma, or investigations in any conversation with Ukrainians or President Zelensky before, during, or after the September 1 meeting in Poland.
After Sondland’s testimony about his imaginary conversation with Vice President Pence, which even if true provides no basis for impeaching him, the Far Left went absolutely orgasmic about the prospect of installing the much-despised Pelosi as President. (Pelosi was viewed favorably by just 38% and unfavorably by 48% for a net rating of -10 according to recent Rasmussen Reports polling.)
Eoin Higgins, staff writer for the Far Left website Common Dreams reported the hashtag #PresidentPelosi was trending on Twitter yesterday “as Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified to the House Intelligence Committee in the impeachment hearings on President Donald Trump’s Ukrainian schemes for assistance in the 2020 election and implicated Vice President Mike Pence in the effort.”
If Trump and Pence are both removed from office over their involvement in the “plot,” gushed Ms. Higgins, the next in line for the presidency is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“It’s over. Gordon Sondland’s devastating testimony must end the Trump presidency,” Ms. Higgins reported author Anand Giridharadas said on Twitter. “But that’s not all. It is now plausible that Vice President Pence should face an impeachment inquiry as well. And Mike Pompeo.”
Ms. Higgins also reported that “journalist” Kellie Meyer “took the testimony to its logical conclusion.” “Sondland implicated both Trump and Pence in his testimony,” said Meyer. “House Speaker is next in line for the presidency.”
In his testimony Gordon Sondland stated quite clearly that the President told him directly “no quid pro quo,” and he testified repeatedly that any tie between aid and investigations was based on his own personal belief, personal guess or “logical conclusion.” With that in mind it is our logical conclusion that, all fantasies of Richard Painter and the readers of Common Dreams to the contrary, if Sondland is all they have, Nancy Pelosi has (praise the Lord) no chance of becoming President of the United States.
