Ep. 5098 – Peter Van Buren on the Impeachment Derangement in Washington – 10/18/2019

Scott interviews Peter Van Buren about his recent article in The American Conservative, “Finding a Vaccine for the Impeachment Derangement Virus.” Van Buren argues that whatever President Trump’s real crimes might be—most notably continuing to help the Saudis prosecute a war of genocide in Yemen—nothing that the Democrats have tried to nail him with is actually convincing at all. Of course, if Trump’s political opponents were serious about holding him accountable to the law, they would also be forced to indict Obama (and just about every other modern president) for the same war crimes and abuses of executive power. Instead, says Van Buren, they will play political theater, pretending to be outraged about things that most voters simply don’t care about. He worries about what this kind of standard will mean for America’s political future once Trump leaves office.

Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine.

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