Portside

you may have heard once or twice over the course of the last few months is that Donald Trump is facing impeachment on charges he abused the power of the presidency and obstructed Congress. Something you may also have picked up on is that he is not taking the whole thing very well, a shocking turn of events given that he typically takes slights, perceived or otherwise, in total stride. The president has raged against the impeachment inquiry as a politically motivated “witch hunt,” claimed on a near hourly basis that he’s the victim of “harassment,” called for Rep. Adam Schiff to be questioned for high treason, and suggested the U.S. execute the whistle-blower’s sources like “in the old days.” Most recently he decided, the day before the House holds its momentous vote, to send a completely unhinged letter to Nancy Pelosi filled with dozens of falsehoods, characteristically deranged capitalization, insults, historic self-pity, and incredible claims like the one about how he’s been treated worse than “those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.” It’s the sort of document that itself makes the case that Trump is unfit for office, but which his staff, in all its infinite wisdom, apparently decided to let him put on White House letterhead and release for the world to see.

The highlights:

Trump, doing a weird Blanche DuBois voice, pretends to be an expert in Constitutional law despite strong evidence he’s never actually read the Constitution:

He suggests that the founding fathers, i.e. the people who wanted to prevent a ruler with unchecked power, would be horrified to learn that Pelosi and company aren’t letting him govern like an emperor or a North Korean dictator:

You dare to invoke the Founding Fathers in pursuit of this election-nullification scheme—yet your spiteful actions display unfettered contempt for America’s founding and your egregious conduct threatens to destroy that which our Founders pledged their very lives to build.

He—a man who’s been married three times, cheating on the first wife with the second, and the third wife (allegedly!) with a porn star—claims Pelosi has insulted the religious community, and been really mean, to boot:

Even worse than offending the Founding Fathers, you are offending Americans of faith by continually saying “I pray for the President,” when you know this statement is not true, unless it is meant in a negative sense. It is a terrible thing you are doing, but you will have to live with it, not I!

He repeats a thoroughly debunked lie about Joe Biden:

You know full well that Vice President Biden used his office and $1 billion dollars of U.S. aid money to coerce Ukraine in to firing the prosecutor who was digging into the company paying his son millions of dollars. You know this because Biden bragged about it on video…. Now you are trying to impeach me by falsely accusing me of doing what Joe Biden has admitted he actually did.

He blathers on about his Electoral College win—which he inflates by two votes—and insists Pelosi is the mentally deranged one. Oh, and that she hates democracy too:

Everyone, you included, knows what is really happening. Your chosen candidate lost the election in 2016, in an Electoral College landslide (306-227), and you and your party have never recovered from this defeat. You have developed a full-fledged case of what many in the media call Trump Derangement Syndrome and sadly, you will never get over it! You are unwilling and unable to accept the verdict issued at the ballot box during the great Election of 2016. So you have spent three straight years attempting to overturn the will of the American people and nullify their votes. You view democracy as your enemy!

An aside about his emotional fortitude, in the midst of a six-page meltdown:

Few people in high position [sic] could have endured or passed this test. You do not know, nor do you care, the great damage and hurt you have inflicted upon wonderful and loving members of my family…. There are not many people who could have taken the punishment inflicted during this period of time, and yet done so much for the success of America and its citizens.

An unintentional attempt at humor

    I have been far tougher on Russia than President Obama ever even thought to be.

No puppet, no puppet, you’re the puppet!

You are the ones interfering in America’s elections. You are the ones subverting America’s Democracy. You are the ones Obstructing Justice. You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic for your own selfish, personal, political, and partisan gain.

An amazing claim that he, the guy who refused to take part in the House’s inquiry—which wasn’t actually a trial—and stonewalled numerous subpoenas for information, has been treated worse than those accused during the Salem witch trials, wherein refusing to go to trial led to death by crushing and people were found guilty based on evidence that their spirit had visited others in a vision or dream:

I have been deprived of basic Constitutional Due Process from the beginning of this impeachment scam right up until the present. I have been denied the most fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution, including the right to present evidence, to have my own counsel present, to confront accusers, and to call and cross-examine witnesses, like the so-called whistleblower who started this entire hoax with a false report of the phone call that bears no relationship to the actual call that was made. Once I presented the transcribed call, which surprised and shocked the fraudsters (they never thought that such evidence would be presented), the so-called whistleblower, and the second so-called whistleblower, disappeared because they got caught, their report was a fraud, and they were no longer going to be made available to us. In other words, once the phone call was made public, your whole plot blew up, but that didn’t stop you from continuing. [Editor’s note: If by “whole plot blew up” he means the rough transcript solidified the case for impeachment then sure, the whole plot blew up.]

More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.

Something about Pelosi not having any respect for…impeachment

Perhaps most insulting is your false display of solemnity…. There is no reticence. This is not a somber affair. You are making a mockery of impeachment and you are scarcely concealing your hatred of me, of the Republican Party, and tens of millions of patriotic Americans.

Anyway, as insane letters go, it gives Trump’s most insane letter to date—the one he wrote to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—a real run for its money. It loses points only for his failure to sign off by telling Nancy: “Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool! I will call you later.” But it’s definitely up there.

Read Trump’s Letter to Pelosi Protesting Impeachment
December. 17, 2019
The New York Times

We fact-checked President Trump’s rambling and angry letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which he expressed his “most powerful protest” against the impeachment process.