{"id":125230,"date":"2021-02-11T22:04:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T03:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=125230"},"modified":"2021-02-12T08:47:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T13:47:01","slug":"former-acting-dni-richard-grenell-says-impeachment-process-now-a-political-weapon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-acting-dni-richard-grenell-says-impeachment-process-now-a-political-weapon\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Acting DNI Richard Grenell Says Impeachment Process Now a \u2018Political Weapon\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-acting-dni-richard-grenell-says-impeachment-process-now-a-political-weapon%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=125230&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Former Acting Director of National Intelligence <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-richard-grenell\">Richard Grenell<\/a>\u00a0has said the Democrats\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-impeachment\">impeachment<\/a> trial of former President Donald Trump is \u201cpoliticizing\u201d a serious government institution.<\/p>\n<p>He called the current impeachment trial an \u201cunserious process\u201d that isn\u2019t being presided over by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-supreme-court\">Supreme Court<\/a> justice, setting a precedent for Republicans to use the same stunt for their own political gain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat the democrats have successfully done\u00a0is politicized\u00a0yet another Washington D.C. institution and it will damage our democracy by politicizing the process once again,\u201d Grenell\u00a0told The Epoch Times\u2019 American Thought Leaders program on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Grenell\u00a0said that House and Senate Democrats have moved impeachment\u2014a fundamental constitutional power of Congress meant to provide checks and balances on power\u2014from a \u201cserious process into just a political weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd they should not be surprised in the future when it is used by Republicans as exactly that: a political weapon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3690933\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/senate-swearing-in-600x338-1.jpg\" alt=\"Patrick Leahy\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the president pro tempore of the Senate, who is presiding over the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, swears in members of the Senate for the impeachment trial at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 26, 2021. (Senate Television via AP)<\/p>\n<p>Grenell, who was the first openly homosexual individual to serve in a cabinet role in U.S. history, was appointed by Trump in February 2020 and served until May.<\/p>\n<p>He said the lack of a Supreme Court justice presiding over the impeachment trial demonstrates how the process has become \u201cpolitical\u201d and \u201cunserious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is literally the \u2026 weaponization of government,\u201d he said, adding that it has been a consistent tactic of the Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve done this to the intelligence community. They\u2019ve done this to the IRS. They\u2019ve done this to the Justice Department, and now they\u2019re trying to weaponize impeachment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Zero Chance\u2019 of Trump Conviction<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3684140\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Trump-clapping-600x338-1.jpg\" alt=\"Donald Trump greets the crowd\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then-President Donald Trump greets the crowd at the \u201cStop The Steal\u201d rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Tasos Katopodis\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Grenell\u00a0said he believes there is \u201czero chance\u201d the Democrats will be able to convict Trump, while noting that the former president during his Jan. 6 speech had called on the crowd to be \u201cpeaceful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This evidence, he argues, is being ignored by many politicians and their staffers who \u201cfail to do basic research or ignore basic facts\u201d as well as many\u00a0media outlets, Grenell said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you look at what President Trump said in his speech, he said\u00a0peaceful protests\u2019 he instructed the crowd to be peaceful,\u201d Grenell said. \u201cThe fact that the mainstream media refuse to play that video for the public is so obviously political.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grenell has been heavily critical of legacy media and social media\u2019s censorship of conservative voices. In a recent post on Twitter, he questioned the social media giant for its suspension of Republican Devin Nunes\u2019 account, asking \u201cWhy does this never happen to Democrats @Twitter?\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Why does this never happen to Democrats, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Twitter?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Twitter<\/a>? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eKx04OiO2j\">https:\/\/t.co\/eKx04OiO2j<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RichardGrenell\/status\/1359349248643354625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 10, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell\u00a0has said the Democrats\u2019 impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump is \u201cpoliticizing\u201d a serious government institution. He called the current impeachment trial &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1893261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6481,3692,6483,3636,6482,4005],"class_list":["post-125230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-acting","tag-former","tag-grenell","tag-impeachment","tag-richard","tag-says"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1893261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}