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Whether you choose to use the expression "constitutional crisis" to describe the current situation or not, it is quite obvious that we are at the heart of a historic struggle against the system of checks and balances that governs for a long time and the judicial branches interact with each other.
Consider:
- The Judiciary Committee of the House voted this week to condemn Attorney General Bill Barr in defiance of his refusal to release the complete, unedited report, Mueller.
- Richard Neal (D-Mass.), Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, released Friday subpoenas to retrieve President Donald Trump's previous income tax returns.
- The White House has banned former lawyer Don McGahn from subpoenaing to testify at Capitol Hill.
- Trump invoked executive privilege over the entire Mueller report
- The Senate Intelligence Committee has assigned Donald Trump Jr.
Wherever you looked, there was a battle between the White House and the Democrats (and even the Republicans!) In Congress.
Trump and his White House calculated that total resistance to Democrats' demands for control was their best hope of slowing down investigations and consolidating the president's political base by 2020.
Congress Democrats, on the other hand, see Trump's resistance as an existential threat to the separation of powers and the equal status of the legislature's powers. (Plus, fighting with Trump is exactly what their base wants too.)
Nobody really knows how the various judicial proceedings resulting from this series of disputes will end. And nothing guarantees that one side wins all legal battles. We can face a split decision.
But here is what is certain: None of this is good or healthy for our body politic. No matter the outcome of this chicken game, one side – and maybe both sides! – will feel badly done and therefore the results will be either biased or definitive. This, in turn, will further erode people's trust in our system of government and the people they have chosen to represent it.
Point: This kind of confrontation produces a lot of losers and very few winners. Nothing that is happening in Washington will end well. None of that.
Below, the week that has been, in 30 titles.
On Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thurthere:
Friday:
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