Why does it matter who President Trump asked Ukraine’s president to investigate? An American politician may have used his influence to have the former president of Ukraine fire a prosecutor who was investigating a company that had put that politician’s son on the board of directors and paid him $50,000 a month, although the son had no experience in the relevant industry or in Ukraine. That may be a crime—certainly no one would suggest that there isn’t at least the appearance that the company may have been trying to buy influence with the politician—and as the head of the executive branch, it is Trump’s responsibility to see that the laws are faithfully executed and possible crimes are investigated. If he had made the request to investigate just a “regular” American politician who wasn’t vice president at the time and a political rival of Trump, nobody would have batted an eye. Does Joe Biden and his son get free passes, and if so, why? From Peter Van Buren at theamericanconservative.com:
This isn’t about the law; it’s about circumventing another vote by the deplorables in 2020.
Disregard all the dramatic accusations in and around the whistleblower’s complaint; they’re just guff. This entire impeachment brouhaha hinges on Donald Trump’s own words in the transcript of his call with the Ukrainian president. Is he demanding foreign interference in the 2020 election? Or is he asking an ally to run down unethical actions by a man who might become president (here’s a 2018 letterfrom the Dems asking Ukraine to help them investigate Trump to compare it to)? Or is it mostly just Trump running his mouth off in a rambling, often disconnected, stream-of-consciousness phone call that means very little?
If you read Trump’s words as impeachable, you are asking to impeach on something that was talked about but never happened. Ukraine never handed over dirt on Biden. Trump never even asked Attorney General Bob Barr to contact Ukraine. Rudy Giuliani may or may not have had meetings with someone but no one is claiming that anything of substance happened in them. There is no evidence military aid was withheld in return for anything. If nothing happened, then nothing happened. You need a body on the ground for a smoking gun to matter.
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