I Challenge Bob Goodlatte to a Public Debate on Whether Donald Trump Poses a Threat to Our Constitutional Order

I intend to pose the following public challenge to Representative Bob Goodlatte (VA-06), Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, against whom I ran in 2012.

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Bob Goodlatte, I challenge you to a public debate on the proposition:

“We, the American people, have probable cause to believe that President Donald Trump poses a threat to our constitutional order.”

— this debate to occur at 7:00 PM on an evening before the end of April, in a public venue in Harrisonburg, Virginia, with the public and the press invited to attend.

In the debate, I will take the affirmative side.

Unless, by the end of business on April 12, you have done one of the following:

• Agreed to the debate, with the time and place set; or
• Publicly expressed your agreement with the above proposition; or
• Begun conducting honest hearings – in your role as the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee — of a kind appropriate under the present circumstance for the House committee responsible for bringing charges of impeachment;

I will instead shift my challenge to the Republican Party’s 6^th District Committee. My challenge to them would be to send an individual of their choice to debate me publicly on the proposition:

“Bob Goodlatte is violating his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

(This proposition, it should be noted, would follow from the first proposition, for any Chair of the House Judiciary Committee who is not conducting the appropriate hearings investigating possible impeachable offenses by this President — given what is already publicly known — is ipso facto violating his oath of office.)

In that challenge, I will name the time and place for the debate. And I will be there regardless, ready to debate or — if the Republicans’ 6^th District Committee fails to send someone to debate me – ready to deliver to the public and the press who attend the event a statement arguing that, contrary to your oath, you are defending Trump and not the Constitution.

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I would welcome feedback/suggestions concerning this challenge.

Also, this approach could be used against other Republicans in Congress (House and Senate). While not every member is as key a player as the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, every member has taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and all now have or soon will have some role that oath obliges them to play.