Democratic megadonor and ‘enlightened plutocrat’ Tom Steyer can no longer sit idly by and watch as President Donald Trump sullies the dignity of the Oval Office by lashing at anybody who criticizes him and issuing Twitter rants directed at enemies both real and perceived.
So he's decided to do something about it by releasing a laughably sanctimonious new video framed as a call to arms for Republican members of Congress to “do what’s right” and “demand that members of Congress take a stand on impeachment" of President Trump.
In the hilarious video, Steyer accuses Trump of being “mentally unstable” while simultaneously alleging that he’s brought the US to the brink of nuclear war to indulge his own ego. Steyer’s litany of distorted accusations - from accepting bribes from foreign governments to deliberately obstructing justice - combined with saccharinely somber background music makes for an obliviously un-self aware attempt at emphasizing the 'gravity' of the situation.
“A Republican Congress once impeached a president for far less, yet today people in this Congress know that the president is a clear and present danger armed with nuclear weapons...and they do nothing."
And in what’s perhaps the coup de grace, Steyer bills himself as an “American Citizen” (of course, we can think of a few more appropriate labels, given the context).
Steyer is the founder of investment firm Farallon Capital and the NextGen America environmental political action committee, which opposes the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
While Steyer’s push will likely fall on deaf ears given the Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, impeachment is hardly the biggest threat to Trump’s presidency. As Steve Bannon once reportedly informed a surprised Trump, a clause of the twenty fifth amendment that allows the president’s cabinet to vote to strip the president of his office is much more concerning - particularly given the Republican establishment’s embrace of vice president Mike Pence.
Predictit shows the odds of a Trump impeachment have been relatively stable in recent months at around 30% - though low trading volume raises questions about the validity of this number.
In either case, Steyer has joined a handful of wealthy Americans who are actively campaigning against president Trump. As Russia Today points out, ‘porn king’ Larry Flynt earlier this month offered $10 million for any information that would help to remove Trump, whom he referred to as “a moron” from the White House.
Steyer and Flynt’s denunciations of the Trump administration are indicative of a glaring inconsistency in the so-called resistance’s criticisms of the president: To wit, he is both a calculating and dangerous autocrat, and a doddering incompetent moron.
So which is it?