Inside the Capitol, it’s as if the impeachment of President Donald Trump never happened. One week after the historic undertaking shuttered to a close, Congress is feverishly back at work emboldened but also arguably diminished by the outcome. Senate Republicans are flexing their new status as Trump’s unshakable allies, hitching their election pursuits to his and looking the other away as the president seems to dole out favoritism for friends and payback for critics with apparent impunity. They’re back to confirming record numbers of judicial nominees viewing impeachment politically as a net gain. “We won and they lost,” declared Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. House Democrats are frantically reviving their kitchen-table agenda of health care and pocketbook priorities, a direct appeal to voters after spending the past months focused on erecting a firewall against potential wrongdoing by the president. What has become clear in the aftermath of the impeachment proceedings is the stark realization that the legislative branch can only carry the country so far as a check on the executive. It’s now up to voters to decide. The outcome leaves Congress adrift, its legislative agenda uncertain, its oversight role challenged. Both parties are in flux as the nation’s political energy turns toward the presidential primaries ahead of the November election, when voters will also decide control of the House and Senate. “Everything is at stake in November,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic caucus chairman, as he implored Americans to prepare to vote “as if your life depends on it.” Democrats warn that Trump, far from having learned lessons from becoming the third impeached president, is in fact engaged in an escalating pattern of retribution and political favoritism that started as soon as he was acquitted by the Senate. In a matter of days, the White House reassigned an Army officer, Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, a key witness in the impeachment inquiry, from the National Security Council, and pushed his twin brother, a council lawyer, out with him. Ambassador Gordon Sondland was recalled from his post. Then, Trump tweeted it was “very unfair” that associate Roger Stone was being recommended for up to nine years in prison after being convicted of witness tampering, obstruction and lying to Congress in the Russia probe. The Justice Department swiftly backed off, four government prosecutors withdrew from the case and the White House nixed the nomination of Jessie Liu, the supervising attorney, who was in line for a Treasury post. On Wednesday, Sen. Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called on the Justice Department’s inspector general to look into the matter. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed there needs to be an investigation. “What we are witnessing is a crisis in the rule of law in America,” Schumer said. “Republicans thought the president would learn his lesson. The lesson the president learned was that the Republican Party will not hold him accountable no matter how egregious his behavior,” he said. Some Republicans who indicated the president might temper his behavior acknowledged Wednesday the limits. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said, “There haven’t been very strong indicators this week that he has.” “I said before that I would hope that the president would learn from that experience,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. “The president is his own person, and I’m my own person, and […]
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