"What Donald Trump has done is worse than what has been criticized against Richard Nixon"
Chris Edelson is professor of political science at American University in Washington DC. He comments on the impeachment procedure targeting Donald Trump as the first public hearings begin on Wednesday
Le Temps: In 1973, the public hearing of John Dean, legal advisor to Richard Nixon, in connection with the Watergate scandal was a turning point. Should we also expect revelations or highlights this time around?
Chris Edelson: I think it's hard to compare where it is now to 1973, not least because America's political parties are so different. I would describe the Republican Party today as an authoritarian party, a party that is not committed to liberal democracy, and that builds a cult around Trump. The leader cannot be contested within the party. It's different from 1973. Plus, the media environment has changed - Nixon didn't have Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Breitbart, social media. What Donald Trump did is worse than what was reproached to Richard Nixon, but because of the current profile of the Republican Party and the sounding board offered by right-wing media, closer to media from State that journalistic entities committed to the freedom of the press, I do not expect strong moments or a turning point. Republicans in Congress will back Trump to the end. There is no evidence at this point that they could change their mind. Both Nixon and Trump sought to influence the outcome of an election, Nixon with plumbers and dirty tricks aimed at knocking out or discrediting his opponents, the most infamous being the Democratic National Committee robbery at Watergate . But Trump mostly seeks help from foreign powers. In my opinion, it is more serious.
This is of course difficult to generalize, but your question reminds me of Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death. Postman argued (the book was written in the mid-1980s) that television turned everything, including politics, into entertainment, and that it was dangerous. In his opinion, this weakened the possibility of serious debate and reduced politics to noises or advertisements. Social media and the internet more generally have, in my opinion, continued to prove his point. However, in a culture where politics tends to become entertainment, the public, in this case Americans, can also tire of the spectacle. After several years, this is probably what is happening with Donald Trump. There is evidence - polls, the 2018 midterm elections, or even last week's in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky - that people are fed up with Trump.
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At this stage, a dismissal of the president seems unlikely, because 20 senators would have to turn their backs on him. So what can these hearings bring? Aren't the bets already made?
It is indeed difficult to imagine more than a handful of Republican senators voting in favor of his impeachment. However, I think such a procedure is necessary. Democrats have no choice. There is evidence that Trump tried to extort Ukraine to help him with his re-election campaign. It is a crime, whether criminal in nature or not, that strikes at the heart of liberal democracy. Trump has dealt a blow to the notion of free and fair elections, and this is not the first time: remember 2016, or, in addition to the Ukrainian affair, his public appeal to China this year [Donald Trump also called on Beijing to open an investigation into the activities of Hunter Biden on October 3].
If Trump remains in office, the danger is that he feels he is free to continue to do so, with impunity. It is therefore necessary to "impeach" this kind of president. He is a president who does not believe in liberal democracy, the rule of law, free and fair elections. Even if an impeachment seems implausible, it cannot be ignored.
Even though the procedure may die in the Senate, do Democrats still have a way to profit from it?
I don't see it from a partisan point of view. I repeat: this is an issue that goes to the heart of our democracy. The question, for me, is whether our system can survive this. In my opinion, our constitutional system has already failed. In a system that works, Republicans would have already joined Democrats in demanding the impeachment of Donald Trump. All hopes are not lost for American democracy; there are still elections in 2020, after all. But the point is, Trump has shown us that he is determined to obtain all benefits, whether fair, legal or otherwise. It is a very dangerous time, an existential crisis for American constitutional democracy.
