Impeachment: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

we're gonna focus on something getting talked about a lot these days impeachment it's one of the most consequential decisions a legislature can make but more importantly it's also an anagram for pinch-me meat which is interestingly these centers that got the Lucky Charms leprechaun me too now ever since this president got elected people have been dying to see him impeached sometimes literally as this oddly upbeat Inside Edition clip shows two people who passed away recently died happily after being led to believe President Donald Trump was impeached according to the obituary for Corliss Gilchrist from Des Moines Iowa loved ones told him before he died that Trump's impeachment process had begun so he would rest in peace further west in Oregon loved ones say this man 75 year old Michael Elliot passed away peacefully last month as soon as they told him Trump had been impeached great music choice there to cover two old men dying perfect tone you set although I will say this that's actually a sweet gesture from their families but why stop there hey Dad we all love you very much and we just wanted to tell you Donald Trump has been impeached arrested registered as a sex offender stuffed into a tie by robert muller and rolled into the Potomac River he got so dizzy he cried and hurled and himself all at the same time they've got it all on camera and now it's a meme anyway have a good death goodbye but the question of in Pittsburgh hasn't just been employed as effective hospice care it's become a major talking point among House Democrats with a rising number coming out in favor of it 63 of them now support an impeachment inquiry and some like representative Rasheeda Talib have gone even further we're gonna go I know running teach the Wow it is genuinely startling to hear that language from a congressperson what almost sooner expect to hear impeach the as an edgy new slogan for peach iced tea Oh Snapple you were always the nice tea this isn't you but not everyone in the Democratic Party is quite as enthusiastic about the whole impeachment idea House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly attempt to apply the brakes to an impeachment inquiry claiming the country is not behind it and then in fact they barely understand what it actually means do you know most people think that impeachment means you're out of office did you ever get that feeling are you just in the bubble here they think that you get a peach you're gone and that is completely not true it's not the means to the end that people think all you do vote to impeach bye-bye birdie it isn't that non-si Pelosi knows there there's simply no better way to connect with the average working job than by referencing a Broadway musical from 1960 also if this situation were to be a musical it wouldn't be Bye Bye Birdie it would obviously be grease where a rapey guy with weird hair treats women like and yet somehow gets everything he's ever wanted but I will say it is true that many people don't fully understand what impeachment involves so what we thought that tonight might be a good time to discuss what it is why it may be warranted and what the risks might be in carrying it out and let's start with the fact that as Nancy Pelosi just said impeachment in no way guarantees a president's removal from office in fact no president has ever actually been removed through this process two presidents have been impeached clinton and johnson but remained in office and nixon actually resigned on his own before the house could finish impeaching him sort of like an Irish goodbye if Nixon didn't also hate the Irish very basically here is how the impeachment process works typically it begins with an inquiry in the House of Representatives during which a committee investigates and holds hearings into a president's conduct and if a majority decides they found impeachable offenses they vote to but that is not the end that merely moves the process to the Senate where a trial is held and the president is only removed from office if a two-thirds majority votes for that so what is the case for putting this president through that process well the Constitution says grounds for impeachment are treason bribery or high crimes and misdemeanors and that last phrase can trip people up even people who might really want to research its exact definition there was no crime you know it's high crime and not width or for its high crimes and misdemeanors there was no high crime and there was no misdemeanor so how do you have each based on that okay okay clearly high crimes and misdemeanors doesn't literally mean there has to be both a big crime and a little crime well the president's committed murder now we just need to catch him urinating on the side of the wall ah and we got it no that's not how anything works because if the fact is high crimes and misdemeanors can include acts that are not actual crimes it is a broad term for serious misconduct and Congress is currently looking into a wide range of trumps potential misconduct from a campaign finance violations to whether or not he's used his office to enrich himself but one area where we already have considerable evidence against Trump is obstruction of justice it's a very serious allegation it was among the articles of impeachment approved against both Nixon and Clinton obstruction was also half of Robert Mueller's report in which he laid out ten potential instances of it taking place and we clearly don't have time to get into all ten so let's let's just look at one involving Don Magan who was Trump's White House Counsel you might remember him as well as the understudy for Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing he was ready to jump in if Cavanaugh ever cried himself into an early nap McCann's appearance in the Miller report got a lot of attention when it first came out primarily because of one eye catching quotes former White House Counsel Dunn McGann he refused to ask rod Rosenstein to fire Muller and threatened to resign instead after the president asked him to do quote crazy using a word that I can't use on TV the word is the word in question is Tom McGann said the President and I quote asked him to do crazy and it's frankly amazing that in a time when norms are crumbling left and right we are upholding the norm that Ali Velshi can't say on MSNBC I guess that does actually make sense kids love the village there's there's nothing four-year-olds love more than watching him on TV and repeating everything the velch says but that phrase crazy actually became unhelpfully distracting because the fact the president's lawyer said a naughty word kept people from focusing on the details of what Trump actually asked him to do which many argue amounted to flagrant obstruction Trump asked McGann to have Robert mullah the person investigating him fired specifically according to McGann under oath Trump told him mullah has to go adding call me back when you do it then calling him back and asking have you done it so this is clearly something very important to Trump it wasn't something he said casually like Robert Pattinson should not take back Kristen Stewart she cheated on him like a dog or my favorite part of Pulp fix is when Sam has his gun out in the diner and he tells the girl tells the guy to tell his girlfriend to shut up tell that to be cool say be cool I love those lines no this was something trunk was really serious about but the potential obstruction didn't stop there because a second instance mullah sighted came after news broke the Trump had tried to remove mullah and Trump tried to get Magan to put out a statement denying it and also said he wanted began to write a letter to that effect for our records so to recap there it seems the president obstructed justice then obstructed justice again to try to obstruct the investigation into his obstruction of justice it's ridiculous I know I know that this might seem like a legal technicality in a couple of phone calls that didn't go anywhere but here's why this really matters but for Don Magan trunk might have stopped an investigation into himself and if a president can shut down an investigation he can basically do anything with no consequences it's a big big deal the problem is this has been in the public record for nearly two months now and his failed to make much of an impression when Justin Amash the the only House Republican to come out in favor of impeachment so far held a town hall where he explained his decision at least one of his attendees was genuinely shocked to hear that Trump might have done anything wrong I was surprised to hear there was anything negative in the malla report at all about President Trump I hadn't heard that before and I mainly listened to conservative news I haven't heard anything negative about that report and president Trump has been exonerated yeah that's what will happen when you mainly listen to conservative news it's like your only source of information about Oh Jay Simpson it's his new Twitter account yeah that's real the juice is on Twitter now and if that was your only source of juice news you might not understand why this first video that he posted is so alarming now coming soon to Twitter you'll get to read all my thoughts and opinions on just about everything so it should be a lot of fun I got a little didn't even to do oh my god what is getting even mean for O'Shea when you kill two people you even three people your odds for people yet even again is that it I don't know but the point I'm making is if that's the only place you're getting your oj info your response to that video might be Oh Jay looks great he's 71 whatever he's been doing it works but but that woman is by no means alone the truth is most people are simply never going to read a four hundred and forty eight page legal document that is presumably why Congress has been trying to have public hearings to get that information out in a way that might resonate with people better in fact Magan was called to publicly testify last month which could have been very powerful and I'm guessing that's why this happened instead former White House Counsel Don Magan was a no-show at a house hearing today after the president insisted he'd not testify Democrats had hopes to hear from former White House Counsel Don Magan instead they were faced with this empty chair great so Democrats tried to have a hearing but instead had pass over they put out a chair for a guest who didn't arrive and most of America had no idea that it happened look there is a real argument to be made here for concentrating Congress's investigations and the public's attention into one impeachment inquiry so why not do it well Nancy Pelosi might argue that impeachment is not popular with the public which is to be fair true polls consistently show a majority of Americans oppose impeachment proceedings although it is not quite that simple remember most people don't even know what is in the mullah report and numbers can move as people learn more look at Nixon in hindsight his resignation seems inevitable but in the early days of the scandal there was real public resistance to his removal many more things are bothering America than Watergate I think they make a big fuss over nothing nothing has been proven illegal about anything he's done and I think he's he's on the right track yeah exactly for a while people thought that Watergate the scandal that we now use a shorthand for every political scandal didn't matter and that that's shocking to watch although to be fair in the 1970s they also thought that shag carpeting was attractive and that Liberace just hadn't met the right girl yet that decades had a lot to learn but but a Nixon outcome is not the only model many Democrats worry that things could instead end up like the Clinton impeachment where the public wasn't really on board with impeachment from the beginning and they never got on board and not only did Clinton survive his party gained seats in that year's midterms that is what Democrats are scared about here that that impeachment could end up strengthening Trump for 2020 although for any Democrats whose main concern is that pursuing impeachment could be the reason they lose in 2020 please relax it's just one of many ways the Democrats could lose maybe Trump is caught on tape saying the n-word but then two weeks later Elizabeth Warren accidentally caused a veteran a veterinarian and people get twice as angry about that there's so many ways that this could go wrong so so for so many people here that the key calculation is would the benefits of impeachment outweigh the risks and look that is just impossible to say it's impossible to say how a trump impeachment would play out although him leaving office is extremely unlikely that that would require 20 Republican senators to vote against him and even if they did that there is still no guarantee that Trump would actually leave he basically told us as much out loud when you look at past impeachment where there was president litt nor I guess President Nixon never got there he left I don't leave there's a big difference I don't leave yeah of course Trump wouldn't leave you think he'd hold a press conference and bashfully saying to a camera I was wrong in what reality would that happen then you graciously say I would now let someone else be the president you're insane then what he pack a suitcase and walk physically walk out of the White House and just not be the president anymore no he make us drag him out like an uncooperative toddler you know this you know that's true and if you're thinking what if he's unlikely to go then what's the point well it might be helpful to stop thinking of this in purely binary terms you know if the president goes well that's a success if he stays it's a failure basically it's Nixon or it's Clinton that's a false choice it's like saying you can only be Hufflepuff or Slytherin excuse me Gryffindor and ravenclaw are right there and in my case snuggle boggle that's that's the fifth Hogwarts house that's exclusively for cowards because because when it comes to impeachment there aren't just two outcomes even if Trump is not removed which he probably won't be the process could shine a light on the contents of the Malheur report potentially lead to new revelations about Trump's conduct and forces Republican allies to choose publicly and on the record whether or not to hold him to account and you might well say but even so opening an impeachment inquiry is just too risky and I do get that I've gone back and forth on this myself for that very reason and to be honest the thing that's tipped the scales for me is remembering that not opening an inquiry comes with consequences too because it essentially sends the message that the president can act with impunity which is a dangerous precedent to set not just for future presidents but for the current one just this week he was asked about Don juniors failure to alert the FBI when Russia offered them Intel during the campaign and his response was appalling shouldn't he are going to the FBI when he got there okay let's put yourself in a position you're a congressman somebody comes up and says hey I have information on Europe on do you call the FBI I don't think I mean from the night one you do I've seen a lot of things over my life I don't think in my whole life I've ever called the FBI in my whole life I don't you don't call the FBI this is somebody that said we have information on your opponent oh let me call the FBI give me a break life doesn't work or director says that's what should happen the FBI director is wrong okay there is so much in there let's break this down into three pieces first I don't think in my whole life I've ever called the FBI is a truly insane thing to say no people usually don't call the FBI except when they're in a very specific situation that clearly requires them to do so that's kind of how that works I have never called Emilio Estevez as a general rule in one's everyday life one does not call Emilio Estevez but if I found a wallet on the street with Emilio Estevez his driver's license and contact information on call Emilio Estevez because that's what the situation requires okay so second let's take he's give me a break life doesn't work that way it is genuinely fascinating to watch Trump project his own amoral awfulness onto the rest of humanity oh so you see a baby stroller about to roll down a hill and what you're gonna stop it give me a break life doesn't work out that way you stand there your watch and you laugh everybody knows this and everybody agrees give me a break give me a break or that one and finally the FBI director is wrong he's basically saying laws are a matter of opinion and you can trust your uncle Don on this one but of course that is not true which is why the head of the Federal Election Commission put out a statement reminding all of us that it is illegal to accept anything of value from a foreign country in connection with the u.s. election and when foreign governments seek to influence American politics it is always to advance their own interests not America's she tweeted that statement out with a note reading I would not have thought that I needed to say this that kind of sums up where we are in the Trump presidency all of those things we wouldn't have thought we needed to say we need to say them now and as if that weren't bad enough Trump been engaged in a little thought experiment of what he would do if he found himself in the same situation all over again your campaign this time around if foreigners if Russia if China if someone else offers you information an opponent should they accept it or should they call the FBI I think maybe you do both I think you might want to listen I don't there's nothing wrong with listening if somebody called from a country Norway we have information on your opponent oh I think I'd want to hear you want that kind of interference in our elections it's not an interference they have information I think I'd take it first of all let's address that Norway it continues to be telling that when Trump tries to search his brain for the best country he can imagine it goes directly to the whitest country he can imagine but but more importantly that is the president openly inviting foreign interference in our elections again and I know that we've all become numb to Trump by this point but moments like that really shock you out of your stupor and make you think oh oh hang on that guy's got to be impeached we've got to impeach him and look should Democrats let house investigations play out a little further before they make a move I don't maybe there's an argument for that that strategy certainly paid off during Watergate but later can't mean never because the case for inaction here is starting to get pretty weak and yes public opinion is currently against an impeachment inquiry but if Democrats think opening an inquiry is genuinely the right thing to do then it's then incumbent upon them to work to change that opinion I know it's easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reined Trump in so far but I will say this every succeeds until finally they don't again 18 months before he resigned Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67 percent Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day he definitely wasn't James Holzhauer was stealing all of Alex Trebek's money until someone finally put a stop to it respects the spirit of the game James yeah monster I can't guarantee that impeachment will work out the way that you wanted to because it probably won't but that doesn't mean that it's not worth doing because if nothing else we'd be standing by the basic fundamental principle that nobody is above the law and in doing so it would mean that when people tell dying relatives that we're doing everything we can to hold this president accountable at least this time it would actually be true you

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 9,074,153

Rating: 4.6589646 out of 5

Keywords: impeachment john oliver, impeachment last week tonight

Id: zxT8CM8XntA

Length: 20min 21sec (1221 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 16 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/SpellsThatWrong]

Link for Canadians?

[u/foxymoxy18]

Everybody keep in mind that the Russian bots are so prevalent in this thread because the Republicans voted down a bill to prevent foreign powers from influencing our elections. Remember that the next time you vote.

[u/tofeman]

Normally the bots and GOP astroturfers are downvoted to hell by the time I get to a thread like this. Not today though, this is a bad thread.

Support the rule of law, impeach to get all the evidence out and put all the politicians on record about it. I don’t care if it dies in the senate, we all know that’s a possibility but those scumbags need to go on record defending all the abhorrent shit trump has done. If not, then there just aren’t consequences anymore and I don’t want to live in that world.

[u/[deleted]]

The argument seems to be that we should impeach because if we don't impeach, then what does that say? But the same can be said in reverse - if we do impeach, then what does that say? The senate has 45 democrats and 2 independents that could conceivably vote in favor, a full 20 votes short of the 67 needed to convict. What it says is: Trump wins yet again.

People aren't going to follow the proceedings, just like that old lady they'll be fed info on fox news. Then they'll hear that the senate voted against conviction, headlines and Trump tweets will blare "Trump wins! Time to investigate Democrats!" That's what people will hear, just in time for the election. This is a self-inflicted wound. We have to accept that impeachment sucks, and the remedy failed to anticipate modern partisan politics.

You wanna really win this election, find some people in the FBI and get them to do what the Trumpsters in the FBI did in 2016. Reopen the Russia investigation on the eve of the election.

[u/darkenseyreth]

Beware the Russian/Trump bots seem to be out in this video

[u/elheber]

I would buy some Snapple if they made a promotional Orange-Peach tea flavor called imPeach. Even if I didn't support impeachment, the wordplay and promo is just too clever and brazen.

[u/redinator]

link for uk please

[u/DrSilverworm]

This was awesome. I'm embarrassed to be one of many that hasn't heard anything bad come out of the Mueller report. Is there any good article that can provide me with takeaways/cliffnotes or should I just go ahead and read the full report?