MSNBC seems to have a new obsession – painting the growing movement to impeach President Obama as fringe.
During the past 24 hours alone, the cable news network has dedicated at least four segments to the impeachment campaign, bashing a soon-to-be-released book that is reportedly at the center of the movement without inviting the books' authors on for a debate, "Impeachable Offenses: The Case to Remove Barack Obama from Office."
The previous 48 hours have further seen a flurry of MSNBC impeachment segments.
MSNBC featured a panel discussion about the impeachment movement and the new WND Books title by authors Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott.
Host Thomas Roberts called the book a "so-called investigation." Neither Klein nor his co-author Elliott received an invitation to discuss the book or the national impeachment campaign.
Roberts slammed "fringe members" of Congress who have supported the possibility of impeachment, including Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Mich., who said Monday it would be a "dream come true" to impeach Obama.
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program discussed a statement by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., that Obama was getting "perilously close" to impeachment. The show's host stated matter-of-factly that "there is nothing approaching anything impeachable that the president's doing."
MSNBC's "Jansing and Co" featured a segment called "Is the GOP trying to impeach the President?"
In another segment, Obama adviser David Axelrod called the impeachment conversation "absurd."
Last night, MSNBC's Chris Matthews discussed the impeachment effort, telling viewers, "In case you ever doubted the Republicans, let's call it hatred of President Obama, a vocal chorus of Republicans are now calling for him to be impeached."
Impeachment movement snowballs
Besides members of Congress discussing the issue, the impeachment campaign continues to snowball, with an “Overpasses for Obama’s Impeachment” movement reportedly sweeping the nation.
WND first reported on the booming movement in July, and now it claims it has mushroomed to 40,000 members to become “the largest grassroots movement in the nation” in the few weeks since it was launched in June.
The group’s national website has links to Facebook pages of groups in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C.
MSNBC previously reported Klein and Elliott's "Impeachable Offenses" is fueling the national conversation to impeach Obama.
The book lays out the blueprint for impeaching Obama, alleging high crimes, misdemeanors, bribery and other offenses committed against the U.S. Constitution and the limitations on the executive office.
MSNBC.com reported: "The national conversation to impeach the president has been fueled in part by an upcoming book 'Impeachable Offenses: The Case for Removing Barack Obama from Office' that’s set to be released by WND Books next week."
Continued the news network: "The authors of that book lay out a number of criticisms of the president, including his handling of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and his failure to 'preserve, protect, and defend' the Constitution.
"That includes the argument that the president’s health reform law is unconstitutional, even though the Supreme Court ruled more than a year ago that it is constitutional."
Yesterday, Politico reported "Impeachable Offenses" will be hand-delivered to members of Congress when they return from recess Sept 9.
Earlier this week, BuzzFeed.com reported Klein and Elliott's new book "ushers in the Obama Impeachment movement.”
“Impeachable Offenses” has already gone into its third printing, Klein said, “due to unexpected demand from bookstores.”
“Clearly a large segment of the population is concerned Obama has overstepped his executive authority and has used his office to circumvent Congress to change, ignore, or at times perhaps invent de facto law,” he added.
WND Books CEO Joseph Farah told Buzzfeed, “We knew this was going to be a popular book. What we didn’t realize is that retailers would recognize it in advance and place large orders before the public weighed in.”
Cronyism, corruption, cover-ups
Already, the Daily Mail of London has called the "Impeachable Offenses" “explosive,” reporting the book contains a “systematic connect-the-dots exercise that the president’s defenders will find troublesome.”
“Consider this work to be the articles of impeachment against Barack Obama,” stated Klein.
“Every American, whether conservative or liberal, Democrat, Republican or independent, should be concerned about the nearly limitless seizure of power, the abuses of authority, the cronyism, corruption, lies and cover-ups documented in this news-making book,” Klein said.
The authors stress the book is not a collection of generalized gripes concerning Obama and his administration. Rather, it is a well-documented indictment based on major alleged violations.
Among the offenses enumerated in the book:
- Obamacare not only is unconstitutional but illegally bypasses Congress, infringes on states’ rights and marking an unprecedented and unauthorized expansion of IRS power.
- Sidestepping Congress, Obama already has granted largely unreported de facto amnesty to millions of illegal aliens using illicit interagency directives and executive orders.
- The Obama administration recklessly endangered the public by releasing from prison criminal illegal aliens at a rate far beyond what is publicly known.
- The president’s personal role in the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack, with new evidence regarding what was transpiring at the U.S. mission prior to the assault – arguably impeachable activities in and of themselves.
- Illicit edicts on gun control in addition to the deadly “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation intended, the book shows, to collect fraudulent gun data.
- From “fusion centers” to data mining to drones to alarming Department of Homeland Security power grabs, how U.S. citizens are fast arriving at the stage of living under a virtual surveillance regime.
- New evidence of rank corruption, cronyism and impeachable offenses related to Obama’s first-term “green” funding adventures.
- The illegality of leading a U.S.-NATO military campaign without congressional approval.
- Obama has weakened America both domestically and abroad by emboldening enemies, tacitly supporting a Muslim Brotherhood revolution, spurning allies and minimizing the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. The White House is hitting back, calling the book’s impeachment effort “foolhardy.”
“If the Republicans in the House want to try something that foolhardy, it will probably be run by the same group of lawmakers who have voted more than 40 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act,” an unnamed administration official told the Daily Mail.
“Like most of the partisan actions coming out of the House, the Senate would never stoop to dignify it,” the official added.
Klein and Elliott acknowledge that impeachment of a sitting president “is certainly a matter of the utmost gravity, and not a charge to be undertaken for what our Founding Fathers would have called mere ‘factional’ advantage.”
“We will show how Obama has not hesitated to go beyond democratic, legal and constitutional means to advance his radical agenda,” they write.