Confused Dems Want to Oust Trump as They Approve His USMCA Trade Deal

By approving the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Pelosi helped the president fulfill yet another campaign promise: To renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which the USMCA was designed to replace once all countries approve. It was another case of “promises made, promises kept.”

The president tweeted, “America’s great USMCA Trade Bill is looking good. It will be the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA. Good for everybody - Farmers, Manufacturers, Energy, Unions - tremendous support. Importantly, we will finally end our Country’s worst Trade Deal, NAFTA!”

Democratic lawmakers also celebrated the legislation as a victory for both House Democrats and the White House, as CBS News’ "Face the Nation" reported.

“USMCA DEAL: Just moments after Democrats unveiled two articles of #impeachment against @realdonaldtrump, House Democrats are hailing a win with the administration by announcing a deal on a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.”

The far-left wasn’t quite so pleased, however, including Media Matters’ Parker Molloy.

“They didn’t even try to get a concession from the GOP in exchange for bringing this to a vote,” she observed. “They had leverage and then gave it away.”

But more importantly, it demonstrated that House Democrats have that “chewing gum” thing down pat — it can approve legislation. However, the walking part — investigating Trump and piecing together articles to impeachment — left them stumbling and tripping.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told reporters that the House was charging the president under two impeachment articles. However, neither one meets even the minimum threshold of bribery, treason, high crimes or misdemeanors necessary to impeach and remove an officeholder.

Instead they charged the president with “abuse of power,” based on conversations he had with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Framers specifically said “abuse of power” or “abuse of office” were insufficient grounds to impeach, according to Alan Dershowitz, the undisputed authority on U.S. Constitutional law — and a liberal Democrat.

He said that the “open ended criteria for impeachment” that House Democrats settled on “are dangerous and place Congress above the law. That’s why the Framers demanded specific criteria that sound of crime, rather than ‘abuse of office.’”

It was also a case of bad timing for Democrats. As Nadler was laying out the articles of impeachment to reporters, The Hill’s national security reporter Olivia Beavers tweeted that “[Andriy] Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Zelensky, says they ‘never had that feeling’ that US aid & investigations were connected.”

Democrats also charged Trump with obstruction of Congress for seeking judicial review of the legality of congressional subpoenas issued against senior White House officials.

But that’s why courts exist — to settle differences between parties, including disputes between the other two co-equal branches of government.

As Breitbart’s Joel Pollak summarized the two impeachment articles:

1. Trump asked Ukraine to investigate corruption that Democrats agreed was worth investigating.

2. Trump asked the courts to do what the Constitution tells them to do.

The Washington Free Beacon spliced together a hilarious supercut of Democrats making the claim that “We can walk and chew gum at the same time.”

It includes Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, presidential hopefuls Sen. Cory Booker and former Vice President Joe Biden, and Reps. Eric Swalwell, Maxine Waters, and Jerry Nadler, to name a few.

The Free Beacon’s David Rutz observed “for the record” that “walking while chewing gum is extremely easy, and this phrase should probably be retired from the thick book of platitudes from which politicians read.”

Given that the USMCA’s announcement came upon the heels of the one claiming Democrats want to drum the negotiator of the USMCA out of office, The Federalist co-founder Ben Domenech observed that it was a case of “Ludicrous optics.”

In truth, it gave the public much more than simply bad optics. It also prompted a new hashtag that’s trending on social media: #ImpeachmentBackfire. Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder tweeted, “New poll numbers reveal shocking surge for President Trump,” while displaying that hashtag.

Back in the day, kids used to love watching the antics of the Keystone Cops, a zany slapstick comedy troupe pretending to be incompetent police officers. They were depicted on silent films in the days before “talkies.”

Thanks to the magic of television, we can still enjoy those antics as we watch House Democrats try and fail miserably to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.