The Atlantic: Trump's defiance of Congress to help Saudi Arabia grounds for impeachment

[femmedem]

Saudi Arabia First
The president is helping the repressive monarchy wage war in open defiance of Congress. That’s grounds for impeachment.

"As President Donald Trump’s critics focus anew on whether he obstructed justice to thwart Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, a more flagrant abuse of presidential power is unfolding in plain sight.

For weeks, Trump has continued America’s involvement in the war in Yemen, siding with Saudi Arabia against Congress, the body that the Constitution vests with the power to declare war. The House last month approved a resolution, 247 to 175, directing the president to withdraw the U.S. from the war on Yemen. A bipartisan Senate majority had already approved the same resolution. And the American public has no appetite for a long war in Yemen.

On its own, waging war after an official call from Congress to stop doing so ought to be regarded as a violation of the Constitution that warrants impeachment.

But there’s even more to the Trump administration’s “Saudi Arabia First” foreign policy: Citing a provision in the Arms Export Control Act that allows the president to bypass the legislative approval process in an emergency, the administration is circumventing a block on arms sales to the Saudis..."

More: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/saudi-arabia-first/590524/

[mopinko]

1. the best way to start impeachment- start w crimes in office.

hold up the many ways he has thumbed his nose at the constitution and the rule of law AFTER he took an oath to see that the laws be enforced.

ie- tariffs w/o predicate national security issues.
war crimes at the border and the failure to follow a judges orders to reunite the families.
the security clearances.
the violations of the hatch act in the wh driveway.
over riding the will of the congress, and moving money around w/o authorization.
going around congress to pay off farmers.

once we have splashed all those over the front pages for a month or 2, we can get back to the campaign, the inauguration and the fat file w sdny.

[femmedem]

3. Yes to all of that. n/t

[Achilleaze]

2. Yes. #republicanCowardice has brought on this power grab on Congress

republicans are afraid to stand up for themselves, and for America.

Disgraceful. That's the kind of shit that goes down when you meekly support a five-time republican draft-dodging, casino hustler as your republican family-values role model.

[Martin Eden]

4. What recourse does Congress have when a POtuS usurps their power?

This should be a clear cut Constitutional matter brought before the Supreme Court.

The other recourse, of course, is impeachment, and I'm totally on board with that for multiple reasons.