On Aug. 29, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) spoke at a town hall meeting at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club and received a question about impeaching President Donald Trump.
At first she said, “I’d really rather not comment,” before saying, “You all know impeachment and the House brings the impeachment and then the Senate sits as a court and votes at the end. There’s a trial in front of the Senate. And kind of been there, done that. It’s not the greatest thing in the world.”
That was when she proceeded to break the bad news to the audience, saying, “Look, this man is going to be President most likely for the rest of this term.”
So, what does Dianne Feinstein know that the rest of us don’t?
For starters, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Feinstein has been helping to oversee Congress’ investigation into Russia’s supposed interference in the 2016 U.S. election and the alleged collusion with the Trump administration.
Perhaps Feinstein knows what she is talking about when it comes to impeachment.
If Trump will remain President “most likely for the rest of this term” then there must not be much to the accusation that he was somehow involved with colluding with Russia — because there is no evidence. Feinstein is not really expecting impeachment or a successful trial for removal over the issue.
Does that sound like somebody who has seen evidence proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the President of the United States is actually a Russian agent and a traitor who colluded to steal Democratic National Committee emails with Moscow and put them on Wikileaks to help win the 2016 election?
Or like somebody who feels like Washington, D.C. has better things to focus its attention on?
Surely, it’s speculation since she cannot comment on classified matters. But assuming it’s the latter, that this has been a wild goose chase, then this could be a strong political signal from Feinstein to Democrats not to expect these grand allegations of collusion to result in anything that could oust Trump. It was a fantasy.
Particularly if evidence is lacking — and presumably good people are being wrongly accused of treason — it appears that Feinstein is trying to dial back expectations here. Good for her.
Of course, this is only a problem if you bought into the mass hysteria that Trump was a Russian agent in the first place. For the fervent faithful, this may be a conspiracy theory that never truly dies on the fringes of the left. Unsurprisingly, the liberal audience jeered at Feinstein’s proclamation.
But for everyone else who thought this whole Russia thing was a fairy tale from the beginning, moving on should not be too hard.
What makes the charges against Trump so insidious, of course, if they truly lack evidence, is the extent they were pursued by our nation’s intelligence agencies and the outgoing Obama administration — and disclosed to the public — without much to back it up.
All to falsely delegitimize the President’s electoral victory in Nov. 2016. To harm the incoming administration and in extension, the country at large. That was inexcusable. Unforgivable, really.
And no matter how this witch hunt turns out — the American people will never forget.
Because, make no mistake, these false charges that the President somehow worked with Russia to steal the election have done great harm to our country. Perhaps now that Feinstein has seen the evidence or lack thereof, she knows it too. And soon we’re all going to know it.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
