Maxwell School News and Commentary

William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, says "stonewalling" by administration members is based on the presumption that courts will uphold White House executive privilege. "This ploy buys time and delays the House proceedings, but also may add another charge in the impeachment—obstruction of justice."

"If the public impeachment process builds the Ukraine abuse of office case clearly so that average Americans can see what the president did, it should lead to impeachment and a trial in the Senate," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "From there on, everything depends on events that have yet to occur."

Steven White, assistant professor of political science, shows in his book "World War II and American Racial Politics" that the white public’s racial policy opinions largely did not liberalize during the war against Nazi Germany and Congress remained unwilling to act on a civil rights policy agenda.

"Rep. [Adam] Schiff is protected by the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution from being questioned 'in any other place,'" said William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "The protection clearly extends to the offending Tweets."

Leonard Burman, Paul Volcker Chair in Behavioral Economics, says raising significantly more tax revenue to fund Medicare for All "is plausible in the sense that it is theoretically possible. But the revolution that would come along with it would get in the way." 

"This is bigger than a partisan fight," says Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science. "This is really about the nature of what is the presidency and what can it be used for."

"We can see that service jobs are put at risk when President Trump launches a trade war," says Professor of Economics Mary Lovely. "Many service jobs depend on trade, not just because we export services directly but also because services go into export production."

Grant Reeher, professor of political science, says the whistle-blower revelations aren’t really telling people anything they didn’t already know about President Trump. "How many times,” Reeher says, "can you regenerate the outrage?"

"One of the risks for Democrats in 2020— specially at the presidential level—is that the impeachment process will suck up all the oxygen that otherwise might have been available to make the affirmative case for election," says Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher.

"If the allegations are true, the abuse of power is significant, and many members of Congress will be motivated to conduct impeachment proceedings," says William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.