Matt Lewis; My Favorite Never Trumper.

I will admit up front that I like the never Trumper Matt Lewis. Yes, that Matt Lewis, the mainstream media’s house conservative, or at least one of the more articulate ones. He is sometimes on CNN and writes for the Daily Beast.

The MSM believes one of the best ways to attack Trump is through Republican surrogates. They can claim "Hey we are balanced, we bring on Republicans", but of course only self identified Republicans who hate Trump. And those never Trump Republicans don’t mind being used. And who knows, Jake Tapper might be a great guy to work with. I hear people that work with him describe him as “intellectually honest”, but perhaps a bit of a virtue signaler.

Well, Lewis latest piece in the Daily Beast is so cynical, so deceitful, so banal, that I have to share it. The headline is priceless: “I am a conservative and Nancy Pelosi is right On Here.”

First red flag, if you have to state in the first sentence that you are a conservative, you probably are not. In fairness to him I will assume his editors wrote the title.

He doesn’t disclose in his piece that he is a never Trumper. Perhaps someone reading the column will think wow a Republican thinks Trump should be impeached! Next thing you know Bill Weld, or Bill Kristol, both of whom claim to be Republicans, will follow the Lewis lead and also claim that Trump should be impeached.

He starts off with this: “It feels awfully weird to be on the Democratic speaker’s side. But it feels weirder to be disappointed in people who have been my allies.”

What allies? He didn’t vote for Trump. Now he's disappointed that Republicans, allegedly "his once allies", don’t want to side with Nancy Pelosi and undo an election? Republicans don’t want to switch over to his CNN never Trump side?

He may feel disappointment, but no real conservative with any sense is going to join Nancy Pelosi in a coup against a conservative President. A tax cutting President. A de regulating President. A President that is appointing great conservative judges. A conservative President fighting to enforce our immigration laws.

Lewis claims that the administration “pressured” the Ukrainians into investigating Joe Biden. He also says such pressure constitutes an impeachable offense. He posts 3 links to back up the claim, but if you check those out, you’ll find that they don’t prove it at all.

As for the belief that pressuring a foreign government is an impeachable event, I would refer him to Article I, section 4 of the Constitution that says that a President can ONLY be removed for “Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

If a President wants to find out what the previous administration did in another country, say the Ukraine, how can that be illegal, let alone impeachable?

Joe Biden is not President Trumps opponent. And any such “dirt”, a word Trump never used, would go to the Attorney General, not a campaign manager. Doesn't a President have an obligation to investigate whether a previous administration abused its power? Maybe it is wise to ignore the past administration and move on, but such a question is not impeachable.

Lewis then describes Nancy Pelosi as being "patient and pragmatic", regarding her handling of the impeachment matter. He ignores the fact that she admitted that she hadn’t read the transcript of the President’s call. And despite not reading it she claimed that Trump asked the Ukrainians for help in the 2020 election.

I read the transcript. The President never mentioned the upcoming 2020 election. Nancy claimed today that Trump did in, “other words.” I guess in words no one but her, and perhaps Lewis, can hear.

Half way through his column he makes a claim that Democrat members, in districts that Trump carried, are showing great “courage and integrity” by coming out for impeachment.

No, they are not showing courage or integrity. They are caving to their party’s leaders and donors. They have Potomac fever. They are telling their voters we don’t care about how you voted in the election. Trump is not a fellow Democrat, you failed to vote for Hillary, well, screw you we are getting rid of the guy.

Lewis then claims Pelosi is standing up for American values, and that the Democrats who support impeachment know it will probably fail in the senate. And that the knowledge of ultimate failure is “all the more a testament to their sacrifice”. Like the boys of the Alamo perhaps?

Lewis, seems touched by Pelosi’s use of the Ben Franklin line “a Republic if you can keep it.” This line was probably told to Elizabeth Powell. Powell was a friend of Washington and Franklin, but I digress.

Lewis is wrong. It's not the Democrats who are fighting for the Constitution. For to remove a Democratically elected President for purely political reasons is not something Ben Franklin would have supported.