Down to the Wire

Few knowledgeable politicians or citizens will deny the link between the threat to impeach Richard Nixon and the eventual impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton. Misusing a common, contemporary descriptor, "Payback is a Witch!!" The only "real" reason for Clinton's impeachment at that time is because the Republican House of Representatives majority had the votes for impeachment. Before then, they had an insufficient number of votes to sustain that action. Clinton's 1993 impeachment effort was seminal, if for no other reason than to illuminate the corruption to which the Republican party would stoop to win/retain power while exercising their passion for political retribution.

History informs us that Nixon was an unscrupulous, corrupt politician whose primary goal was self-interest. This fact is illuminated by his direction of the Water-

Faye Williams

gate break-in and his interference in the Paris (Vietnamese) Peace Talks. His evident guilt in the Watergate incident was sufficient to inspire a delegation of members of his own party (Republican) to encourage his resignation. He was guilty as sin, and everyone knew it! Don't get me wrong, I deplore the moral turpitude of Clinton. His conduct besmirched the image of the presidency, but the conduct of Nixon crossed into the realm of criminality. The impeachment of Clinton became the means of retaliation for the threatened im-

Marc H. Morial

peachment and resignation of Nixon, and the Republican Party's declaration of exemption from the "rule of law."

Fifty years later, it is obvious that the perception of their exemption from the rule of law is the rule rather than the exception among the leadership AND rank and file of the Republican Party. The corruption and criminality of Trump, their current standard bearer, is the only evidence needed to reach that conclusion. With few exceptions, the willingness of Republicans to justify and defend Trump's law- lessness paints a clear picture of how far they are willing to go to impose their ideals and will upon the majority of Americans.

Trump's obvious willingness to ignore the requirements of the law by refusing to return presidential records and classified documents was bad enough, but, adding to his 20K-plus volume of lies, he declared that all required documents had been returned. Admissions and facts also show that Trump attempted to involve his legal team WILLIAMS Page 54

Juneteenth: Not a Moment of Liberation, But an Ongoing Journey of Persistence and Hope

"The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery." - W.E.B.

Du Bois

Just a dozen years after Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger's Order Number 3 declared "an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves," the last federal troops withdrew from former Confederate states. Their withdrawal ushered in a near-century of legally enforced racial segregation, white supremacist terrorism, and second-class citizenship for Black Americans.

Still, the celebration of Granger's order, the holiday we celebrate on Monday as Juneteenth, endured.

The Great Migrations spread the celebration of Juneteenth from Texas to the rest of the na-

Guest Columnist

tion. The June 19, 1968, Solidarity Day celebration — organized by Greater Washington Urban League Executive Director Sterling Tucker — during the Poor People's March on Washington may have played a role in popularizing Juneteenth.

"My theory is that these delegates for the summer took that idea of the celebration back to their respective communities," the late African American folklorist William Wiggins Jr. said. "Because it was used to close the Poor Peoples Campaign, the idea was tak-

Will Trump Get a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card?

The federal indictment of Donald Trump — the first federal indictment of a former president in U.S. history — poses the question. Trump's enraged reaction — calling it the "greatest witch hunt of all time" and denouncing special counsel Jack Smith, a career prosecutor, as a "deranged lunatic" — makes the question unavoid- able. Obviously, Trump deserves a fair trial, his guilt or innocence determined by a jury of his peers. But every candidate for president should be asked if they would pardon Donald Trump if they were president. As Gerald Ford proved when pardoning Richard Nixon, a presidential pardon can be issued before a trial, or even before formal charges are brought, so the question needn't wait on the trial.

Whether Donald Trump is found guilty or not (it will only take one juror in his upcoming

Miami trial to produce a hung jury), the charges in the indictment are serious, and the facts alleged describe clear violations of the law. The president took classified documents that did not belong to him. These included truly consequential secrets — "information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries, U.S. nuclear programs … and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack." Trump shared classified information with guests who did en back by different participants in that march, and it took root around the country. It has taken on a life of its own."

Given this history, Juneteenth represents not a moment of liberation, but an ongoing journey of persistence and hope.

As President Biden said when he signed the bill designating Juneteenth as a federal holiday, "Emancipation of enslaved Black Americans didn't mark the end of America's work to deliver on the promise of equality; it only marked the beginning."

The white supremacists who rejected the promise of equality during the Reconstruction era called their movement "Redemption" and referred to themselves as "Redeemers." They undermined their political opponents and suppressed Black voters through a campaign of violence and intimidation.

The white supremacists who reject the promise of equality to-

MORIAL Page 54 not have security clearances, essentially crowing about his possession of them. When the National Archives and the Department of Justice sought return of the documents, Trump hatched efforts to hide some of them, even after he was issued a federal subpoena — a legal demand — that he return them. He lied to federal officials, and even deceived his own attorney. As Bill Barr, Trump's former attorney general, stated, "there is no excuse for what [Trump] did here."

Anyone running for office must decide whether to stand with Trump and accuse the Justice Department of being "weaponized" or stand for the principle that no man is above the law, and the law should be applied to the powerful and the powerless alike.

The leading Trump challenger in the Republican Party, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, reacted to the indictment by charging that the "weaponization of federal law

JACKSON Page 54