Rachel Maddow tells Seth Meyers the Democrats needs to stop overthinking and impeach already
Just in case you were thinking that the national discourse was too darn well-informed and responsibly witty, Rachel Maddow stopped by Late Night to talk through the current political mess with Seth Meyers. Well, messes, as Donald Trump is in the White House, the GOP is allowing/abetting him in trampling over the rule of law and the separation of powers, and the Missouri Republican Party is, as Maddow pointed out, straight-up forcing women attempting to get an abortion at the state’s one remaining provider to undergo an invasive and completely unnecessary vaginal exam before obtaining a legal and personal medical procedure. “It’s horribly disturbing,” stated MSNBC host Maddow of the Missouri GOP’s all-out, probe-happy woman-shaming, which is underselling things. At any rate, Maddow and Meyers spent a solid 15 minutes talking shop, with the ever crisp and collected Maddow dishing some sage advice for the Democrats in Congress, and the seemingly equal number of Dems currently running to unseat Trump in next year’s life-or-death-of-democracy pivotal presidential election.
Maddow, who’s drawn the short straw as one of the five moderators of the upcoming two-night, 10-candidates-per-night Democratic debate “double-header” on June 26-27, accepted Meyers condolences for all the attendant homework. (While there are actually 23 candidates currently lined up for the chance to send Trump packing, three are going to miss the TV cut unless, as Meyers said, three drop out or seven more jump in. Which, please no.) As to the head-spinning number of candidates and the attendant debates over that elusive buzzword “electability,” Maddown told Meyers that, as is their way, Democrats are thinking too much.
Comparing the “overthinking” going on to that surrounding the arguments for and against impeaching a president whose every word, deed, and Twitter eruption scream “Impeach this fucker,” Maddow urged Democrats to have a normal, healthy, hard-fought campaign—and then get down to work. “If you are doing it for the right reasons, I think you are more likely to persuade the country that you’ve done it for the right reasons,” opined Maddow of all the signature Democratic waffling going on in both arenas, adding, “Pick the best candidate who you think would make the best president. Approach impeachment in terms of the constitutional imperative here.” As Meyers chimed in, there’s no strategy that will keep Donald the toilet-tweeter Trump from lashing out (“He’s not going to—if he doesn’t get impeached—say, ‘You know what? That was a real fair shake I got from the Democrats, I tip my cap,’” joked Meyers), so they might as well use an impeachment inquiry to lay everything out for the American people. Agreeing, Maddow said, “Just do what you think is right—he’s gonna call you names.”