The first century B.C. Roman statesman Marcus Cicero once opined, “It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.” Were he not separated from the current Congress by two-thousand years, Cicero could very well be describing today’s Democrats and their hypocritical impeachment narrative. In their reckless fervor to unseat President Trump, and to the detriment of the nation as a whole, impeachment hungry House Democrats have now blindly asserted as the basis of their removal efforts, acts of which they themselves are guilty. True to foolish form, observed by Cicero centuries ago, Democrats have made the case that they themselves are guilty of abuse of power, the very charge they choose to assert against the president.

In their race to impeach President Trump, for any reason and at any cost, House Democrats have settled on abuse of power. They allege, without any fact witnesses, that Trump abused the office of the presidency for political gain. They have convinced themselves, and seek to persuade others, that lawful investigation is synonymous with “digging up dirt.” They believe that a former vice president is immunized from liability for corruption by the mere possibility that he might one day be a political rival. Yet, it is the House Democrats that have abused their offices for the purpose of investigating, not a potential political rival, but an established one. It is the House Democrats that have, repeatedly and openly, abused their power for political gain.

President Trump is a political rival of every Democrat in Congress. Since the day he was elected, Democrats have sought to impeach the president. Jerry Nadler campaigned for Judiciary Committee Chairman on the platform that he was best suited to impeach Trump, and this was prior to the creation of the Ukraine narrative. Each and every candidate in the Democratic primary has made their supposed ability to beat Trump a cornerstone of their campaign. No reasonable person can fairly and soberly argue that Trump is not a political rival to the very Democrats that wish to remove him from office. Unlike Joe Biden, who may or may not be a candidate against Trump in 2020, Donald Trump now, in the present, is an actual and established political rival to Democrats.

President Trump did in fact ask Ukrainian President Zelensky to look into corruption, and Democrats now claim that this is an abuse of power. Yet President Trump has, since he entered the political world in 2015, repeatedly made rooting out corruption a cornerstone of his campaign and presidency. Ukraine has a notorious history of corruption. There was and is an established and justifiable reason for Trump to ask Zelensky to investigate. There was and is a substantive issue to investigate. Conversely, Democrats have, since Trump became president, concerted their efforts and investigations to find a crime, or dirt, to smear Trump. An investigation in search of a reason, not only contrary to 200 years of American justice, but also an extreme abuse of power.

As they have identified Trump as their political rival, House Democrats have repeatedly abused their power in order to investigate him. Democrats have been on an endless obsessive quest to gain access to Trump’s tax returns. They have subpoenaed financial records from not only President Trump, but also his businesses and even his family members. The entire purpose of their endless investigations is to find dirt to use against an established political rival.

The United States has three constitutionally established, separate yet equal, branches of government. Democrats have had found no moral dilemma in their use of the judicial branch in an attempt to seize Trump’s tax returns and financial records. Yet impeachment hungry House Democrats have argued that President Trump’s desired use of the courts to settle questions of executive privilege and separation of powers somehow amounts to obstruction of Congress. House Democrats have committed the very acts they would like to hold Trump accountable for.

Adam Schiff, the figurehead of impeachment fever, has illegally accessed the phone records of those who would thwart his attempts, such as Republican Congressman Devin Nunes. Schiff has colluded with the supposed whistleblower, then proceeded to hide him from sight, only to deny ever having known the person. The House Democrats, as a whole, have sprinted to court on multiple occasions to seize Trump’s financials. They have run rough shod over the separation of powers and abused the courts in doing so. They have rigged the hearings to deny due process. All of this has been a blatant attempt to dig up dirt and smear their political rival.

All of these acts, openly and proudly committed by House Democrats, have shamelessly been executed in the name of political gain. Only after conducting voter polls to determine what was politically beneficial, they have morphed the very terms they seek to use for impeachment from “quid pro quo” to “bribery” before ultimately landing on “abuse of power.” Not identifying any wrongdoing and proceeding accordingly, but rather identifying what is politically beneficial and proceeding dishonestly. Most disturbingly, the Democrats have now timed their impeachment efforts with a direct and deliberate effort to impact the 2020 election and prevent the reelection of a political rival, the very charges they now choose to foist upon the president.

Articles of impeachment will now voted on, and almost certainly pass. Speaker Pelosi would like Americans to believe she is acting solemnly and “prayerfully.” House Democrats would like Americans to believe the worst of the president for political gain. Call it hypocrisy, call it gaslighting, or call it plain old sociopathic behavior, Pelosi, Schiff and the rest of the House Democrats have openly committed the very acts they would like to remove the president from office. They are fools that cannot see in themselves the flaws that they project on others.