nwtk2007 wrote:
By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann
WASHINGTON — More than two months after the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump began, you can break down the entire fight into four simple questions.
One, did the president of the United States ask another country to interfere in the upcoming 2020 election — against possible Democratic rival Joe Biden?
(The answer sure appears to be a yes, whether it was in the partial transcript of that July 25 call with Ukraine’s president or Trump’s own words on Oct. 3: “Well, I would think that, if they were honest about it, they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer.”)
Trump rejects invitation to appear at this week’s impeachment hearing
Dec. 2, 201902:10
Two, did Trump and his administration withhold military aid and a White House visit to compel Ukraine to start this investigation into Joe Biden and his son?
Three, were those actions — first the ask of interference, then the temporary withholding of military aid — an abuse of the president’s powers?
(Here’s the president’s oath of office: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”)
And four — and most importantly — do those actions amount to impeachable offenses?
(The Constitution says the following offenses are impeachable: “treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors.”)
So forget the poll numbers and where each party’s base is (though that will ultimately determine whether Trump remains in office). And forget all of the questions about procedure and fairness.
The entire impeachment saga comes down to this question: Did the president violate his oath of office and his stewardship of the executive branch by asking a foreign leader to investigate a political rival – and by trying to compel the foreign leader to do so?
That’s the question almost everyone was asking two months ago, when the impeachment inquiry began.
And it’s the question that everyone still needs to ask today.
The challenge for Democrats, however, is that there are two different impeachment conversations going on — 1) the substance and 2) everything else.
And right now, Republicans have succeeded in turning the conversation to the latter.
#1. I guess it just goes right over their head that there is obvious corruption in the Burisma/Biden connection so if Trump says, hey, there's corruption here, the left can only see that Joe Biden is a presidential candidate; never mind that he's also a potential crook of great proportion AND that he brought all this attention upon himself as he bragged about the power he wielded as VP under Obama. And lest we forget, Biden cited Obama in his "brag" as being fully knowledgeable and supportive of the extortion he was "wielding" against the president of Ukraine. Obama has yet to endorse Biden and. in fact, I'm thinking Obama would, instead, want to bitch slap the idiot big mouth!
#2. It's clear the Trump wanted to hold off on the "visit" until he got the "deliverable" which was specifically noted to be a statement by Ukraine related to their efforts to clean up the corruption in their country. It just so happens that Biden was a part of that AND it was going on long before Biden decided to try to be president and Trump was also looking into it long before then as well. As for the military aid, that isn't so clear and members of the budget division involved in holding up the funds have made it clear that the president was concerned about corruption AND the contributions from other countries. Add to that, Ukraine didn't even know about the hold up and you just don't have much to go on other than the anti-Trump hate which, of course, is going to paint this as a Trump attempt to get at Biden. Why wouldn't they. They are certainly NOT HONEST about it.
#3. I don't know why they cite the president's oath of office here but in my mind, the president's oath includes going after corruption where ever it crops up and with whom ever it turns out to involve. Oh, I'm sure Trump is smart enough to see how it would effect the democrats. Duh. Would that be an excuse to ignore the obvious corruption?? I don't see that in the oath of office, so thanks for citing that, NBC!
#4. Impeachable "offenses?" Well, it seems that virtually anything can be an impeachable "offense" but was anything illegal done? To me, ignoring the Burisma/Biden corruption would be illegal. I'm sure the Trump hating crowd will claim there are impeachable "offenses" but it would seem that only "they" are offended, not the rest of us which brings me to my final point:
How can a president be impeached by a partisan crowd? In fact, the most "bipartisan" part of this, involving two democratic congressmen who don't want to move forward on it, is to not impeach. Even Pelosi said it must be bi-partisan; her own words. Is she not the democratic leader? Is she not the speaker of the house? Does she not have the power to enforce her own beliefs on the subject??
We will see.
By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann br br ... (
show quote)
The fundamental fact underlying this entire pop culture theater presentation is each participants estimation of their own re-electability .............every other consideration rests on that!!!