Donald Trump has never had kind things to say about House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, but in recent days, the president has targeted the New York Democrat in new and unsubtle ways.
A week and a half ago, for example, the president posted an item to his social media platform in which he referred to the congressional leader as “a Low IQ individual” — a label Trump tends to reserve for Black people, for reasons the White House has never explained — who is “not smart enough to be ‘running’ the Democrat Party.” (For good measure, the president also mocked Jeffries’ name, describing “Hakeem” as “a fine American name.”)
In case Trump’s racism wasn’t quite obvious enough, he published a follow-up item last week, again arguing that the House minority leader has a “Low IQ” before adding that Jeffries “is nothing but a THUG, and he is a danger to our Country!”
On Sunday afternoon, the president went even further down the same unfortunate path, with another online missive that said:
Hakeem Jeffries, a Low IQ individual, said our Supreme Court is “illegitimate.” After saying such a thing, isn’t he subject to Impeachment? I got impeached for A PERFECT PHONE CALL. Where are you Republicans? Why not get it started? They’ll be doing this to me!
Let’s unpack this one, which stood out for a variety of reasons.
First, criticizing the Supreme Court is not an impeachable offense. Second, if criticizing the Supreme Court were an impeachable offense, Trump would have a real problem on his hands, given the severity of his recent condemnations of the court and its justices. (It was just last month when the president said “certain” conservative justices on the Supreme Court have “gone weak, stupid, and bad.”)
Third, Trump’s ongoing efforts to relitigate his first impeachment remain quite pitiful. Fourth, his “they’ll be doing this to me” comment seemed like an implicit acknowledgement that he expects Republicans to lose control of the House in the midterm elections.
But even if we put all of these relevant details aside, arguably the five most interesting words in Trump’s online statement were these: “Isn’t he subject to Impeachment?”
As it happens, there is an unambiguous answer: In this country, members of Congress cannot, in fact, be impeached.
The thing is, a sitting American president really ought to know that. Trump no longer has any excuses for flunking Civics 101 tests, since he’s no longer the rookie who got elected despite never having served a day in any governmental capacity. Trump is now in the sixth year of his presidency, and he’s had time to familiarize himself with the basics of how Washington, D.C., works.
The fact that he has no idea that members of Congress can’t be impeached is emblematic of the profound ignorance that continues to undermine his presidency.
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