Dem Rep Accuses Congress of Sending 'Subliminal Message' by Calling All-White Panel of Witnesses

It’s kind of ironic. For years now, Texas Democrat Rep. Al Green has been trying to impeach President Donald Trump. Now it seems to be finally happening. Not for the strange reasons Green put forth, mind you — no talk about Trump’s tweets or his firing of FBI Director James Comey. Instead, there’s something resembling a real reason for it.
You can imagine Green is practically off-the-wall, right? After all, he’s been pushing for this since the Trump administration began, more or less. He looks almost like an oracle.
Given how things are going, he has to be thrilled.
But of course he isn’t.
See, Green believes the Democrats are sending a “subliminal message” — all of the witnesses are white.
In a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives before the House Judiciary Committee began its first hearings Thursday, Green lambasted his own party as well as the Republicans for putting four white legal scholars on the panel.
“I rise because I love my country, but I also rise today with heartfelt regrets,” Green said in his speech.
“It hurts my heart, Mr. Speaker, to see the Judiciary Committee hearing experts on the topic of impeachment — one of the seminal issues of this Congress — hearing experts, Mr. Speaker, and not one person of color among the experts.”
Then came the most interesting (and probably unintentional) line of Green’s speech: “What subliminal message are we sending to the world when we have experts but not one person of color?” he asked.
”Are we saying that there are no people of color who are experts on this topic of impeachment? What is the message that we’re sending? Mr. Speaker, if I am wrong, I will apologize, but if the committee is wrong, if the Congress is wrong, what will it do?”
The congressman went on to say, “I refuse to be ignored and taken for granted. I came here to represent the people who are ignored and taken for granted. Not one person of color among the constitutional scholars.
“It seems that there’s a desire among some to have the output of people of color without input from the people of color.”
It’s worth noting that the three men and one woman who appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, no matter whether you agreed with their opinions (you may guess that I did not, for the most part), are four of the most highly respected legal scholars in the United States: Noah Feldman of Harvard Law, Pamela Karan of Stanford Law, Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina School of Law and Jonathan Turley of George Washington Law.
To Green, it seems, they were more or less interchangeable. 
”I rise today to say that this is not about Democrats. It’s not about Republicans. It’s about fairness,” he said.
”It’s about whether or not we have matured to the point in this country where we’re going to treat all people equally.”
With all people being treated equally, of course, the most qualified legal scholars would be the ones testifying. In short, this isn’t about people being treated equally.
I’m sure that “subliminal” might not have been the right choice of words here, but it sure fits with the rest of Al Green’s remarks.
To be fair, the hearings Wednesday were a profound waste of time, a melange of legal posturing that could have been done without the attempt at television theater.
That said, if you were going to waste our time that way, you might at least do it under the auspices of having the most talented legal minds present, not some talented-ish legal minds who also happened to be people of color just so we can check off those boxes.
This is your impeachment, America.
It has nothing to do with having witnesses who are the most qualified to tell whether we have the constitutional grounds to impeach Donald Trump. It’s making sure those witnesses are diverse enough. Otherwise, we’re sending a subliminal message to other countries.
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