Twitter Absolutely Stunned By Ken Starr Bemoaning ‘The Age of Impeachment’: ‘BEYOND RICH’ From Man Who Led Clinton Probe
Donald Trump’s impeachment trial resumed Monday afternoon with an address from the president’s attorney, Ken Starr, though it might have been completely blown off by people that remember who Starr is and how he became famous.
As part of his address, Starr bemoaned “the age of impeachment” while making ample reference to all the political strife America experienced during the attempted impeachment of former president Bill Clinton.
“Like war, impeachment is Hell. Or, at least, presidential impeachment is Hell. Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment, including members of this body, full well understand that a presidential impeachment is tantamount to domestic war albeit, thankfully, protected by our beloved First Amendment, a war of words and a war of ideas. But it’s filled with acrimony and it divides the country like nothing else. Those of us who lived through the Clinton impeachment understand that in a deep and personal way.”
It’s interesting that Starr would speak of impeachment in such a way, especially when his professional legacy as a lawyer is unmistakably connected to the last time Congress had to decide whether to remove the president from office.
Starr spent years investigating the Clinton administration as independent counsel back in the 90s, and when he filed the Starr Report that revealed Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, the ensuing scandal inevitably led to the former president’s impeachment. Now that Starr is arguing against impeachment on behalf of Trump, there were a lot of political followers who accused Starr of hypocrisy and commented on how the tables have turned since 1998.
Ken Starr calls this period “the Age of Impeachment,” and asks, “How did we get here?” He then whips out a hand mirror and says, “Oh, right. It was me. My bad.”
— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) January 27, 2020
Ken Starr, who impeached a President over an extra-marital affair, is now wondering how we got to the “age of impeachment” and warns that impeachment is inherently destabilizing.
That GOP couldn’t find LITERALLY ANYBODY ELSE to make this argument is amazing.#ImpeachmentTrial— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) January 27, 2020
Ken Starr opens by arguing impeachment has become too common in the modern era. I rarely use caps but that is BEYOND RICH coming from him.
— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) January 27, 2020
Ken Starr is most widely known for the Clinton impeachment. He was also a lawyer for Erik Prince and Blackwater and argued that Blackwater was “constitutionally immune” from a lawsuit brought by families of slain Blackwater contractors.
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) January 27, 2020
Does Ken Starr know he is Ken Starr?
— Elizabeth de la Vega (@Delavegalaw) January 27, 2020
It we are in the “Age of Impeachment” as Ken Starr argues he is its progenitor of that age when he launched the partisan impeachment of Bill Clinton. His argument is filled with holes. He has no basis to say the House is doing what HE did to Clinton! This is pure bogus diversion!
— John Dean (@JohnWDean) January 27, 2020
Beneath the deep absurdity of Ken Starr warning about the “age of impeachment” he helped usher in…
…and the hypocrisy of the positions he argued…
Starr made all process arguments…
and avoided the underlying accusations against the president.
— John Avlon (@JohnAvlon) January 27, 2020
When the Senate impeachment trial of Bill Clinton was underway, Ken Starr went to federal court — at the urging of the GOP House managers — in hopes of forcing Monica Lewinsky to sit for an interview with them.
In the end, she and two other witnesses were heard by the Senate. pic.twitter.com/Wt0DLBM7MX
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) January 27, 2020
It is so deeply ironic to hear Ken Starr … KEN STARR!!! … argue that removing a president through impeachment is too grave a disruption without a bipartisan consensus. Bill Clinton won a popular vote AND EC vote TWICE; he was popular, and his impeachment was purely political.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) January 27, 2020
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