Impeachment witnesses
I think that both the Democrats and Republicans are campaigning for witness production at the upcoming trial in an ill conceived fashion.
The Demos want witnesses to testify that Trump asked the president of Ukraine to do him a political favor and threatened (unspoken) withholding of military aid and a White House visit to back up the request. We don’t need witnesses for that. Trump released a summary of the call in which he asked for an investigation of meddling in the 2016 election and Hunter Biden’s role as a board member of a Ukrainian energy company. He did it and he admitted that he did it. The quid pro quo mechanics are a little messy, since the aid was sent after a short delay, the White House visit took place, and neither investigation was undertaken, but those details are not particularly important.
The Repubs want to question the whistle-blower and Intelligence Committee staff because they are alleging that the process was a witch hunt conducted in a wholly partisan fashion. Duh! True on its face. I strongly suspect that Schiff’s staff wrote or edited the whistle-blower’s complaint, but nobody is going to admit that and it would be hard to prove.
All of those witnesses would not address the only two questions worth asking.
Almost all foreign aid comes with strings. There are demands that policy be altered or that a side be taken in a conflict. There are demands that the money be used to procure merchandise from suppliers in a senator’s state or a congressman’s district (whose votes were needed to get the authorization or whose support was being solicited by a president). The question is whether Trump’s request rises to the level of a high crime. That is a political question. The Democrats are not impeaching Trump because he asked for a favor from a foreign leader; they were pushing impeachment well before the time of the fateful call. They were pushing impeachment the day after the 2016 election. Ukraine was just the hook they found that they thought would stick. Their basic charge is that Trump is unfit to be the president. Unfortunately, that’s the way democracy works. Voters occasionally disappoint the great and good.
The fact questions demanding witnesses are whether there was any basis for Trump’s request.
Demos claim that Trump’s notion that Ukrainians interfered in 2016 is an attempt to exonerate Russia and a delusion of the first magnitude. Trump may be deluded, but it is possible that both Russia and Ukraine attempted to influence the 2016 outcome. Ukraine was then run by a corrupt Russian puppet who was searching for American aid. The request for an investigation may have had some merit. If nothing else, an investigation might have demonstrated that Trump is deluded. We should be exposed to any evidence that supports or destroys Trump’s delusion.
I would also like to hear from the owner of Burisma Holdings. My question would be: “What was Hunter doing in return for the $83,333 per month you were paying him to be on your board?” The Bidens are dirty on this one, both of them. Hunter was trading on his last name. Joe should have asked him to resign from the position to avoid the appearance of a conflict. If Hunter refused, Joe should have asked Obama to put somebody else in charge of dealings with Ukraine. I’d like to listen to Joe under oath explain why he failed to take appropriate action, why Trump was not justified in asking for an inquiry.
As long as we are going through this charade, we might as well learn something.
