For the past five years, the laziest, least impressive thing to do in Washington, D.C., was hate Donald Trump. It requires no effort, it’s not controversial, and 99% of the people here agree with the sentiment.
That’s why Democrats having impeached the president for the second time in his only term feels, well, lazy and unimpressive. If there’s anything to be impressed by at the moment, it’s that a single person got an entire political party and all of the news media to spend every waking moment with him on their minds for so long.
Trump on Wednesday became the first president ever to have been impeached twice. This might feel more important if we were talking about anyone other than Trump, a celebrity showman and reality TV game show host. Literally within minutes of Trump’s inauguration, Democrats were plotting their impeachment. They didn’t even have an issue, but they promised they’d find one.
So, are we shocked that they’ve done it twice?
Admittedly, unlike the first go-around, the second impeachment had some substance. His supporters formed a mob to seize the Capitol building last week, believing they had the president’s approval to do. That’s a problem, and had it happened earlier in Trump’s tenure, there would have been time to lay out a solid case that he deserved to be removed from office.
But it didn’t happen earlier. It happened two weeks before he was scheduled to leave the White House anyway. The impeachment itself comes just seven days before Trump heads out.
The lack of timing makes the House vote seem frivolous, unnecessary, and, obviously, political.
It is, in a word, cheap.