\nPresident Trump was caught attempting to coerce Ukraine to interfere in\nthe 2020 Election on his behalf. The key\nquestion was how he would choose to address his misconduct. Any decent leader would choose to be\nresponsible, especially once caught, admit to the facts and focus on the\nconsequences. Professionalism and\nhumility go a long way towards redemption. \nTrump, however, lacks the character to admit even the slightest error or\nfault. There was no way his seriously\ndamaged psyche could ever allow him to admit genuine criminality like\nthis. In fact, Trump outright prohibited\nanyone in his administration or Congressional Republicans from conceding that\nhis now infamous phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky was anything but\nperfect! They could not even acknowledge\nsomething so innocuous and obvious such as to say he could have said things\nbetter during the call. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIn 2 weeks of public, transparent, professional hearings, the House\nIntelligence Committee heard from almost 20 witnesses consisting of career\npublic servants, all of whom had earned impeccable records and reputations for\nintegrity, and Trump\u2019s political appointees, all of whom were clearly\nsupporters, not \u201cnever-Trumpers.\u201d None of\nthe witnesses was pursuing a personal crusade against Trump or his\npolicies. Each answered a subpoena that\ncompelled them to appear and tell the truth under oath. The result was an unequivocal, uncontroverted\nfactual predicate supporting the serious allegations against Trump as well as\nhis incredible dishonesty. Gordon\nSondland, who donated $1,000,000.00 to Trump, thus \u201cpurchasing\u201d his\nambassadorship to the EU, testified that Trump orchestrated a quid pro quo,\nessentially bribing Ukraine to conduct improper and baseless\ninvestigations. Sondland would certainly\nknow of such things\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe hearings were thorough and painted an incredibly clear picture. Trump and Congressional Republicans chose to\ncontinue Trump\u2019s unprecedented campaign of dishonesty and deceit to the\nAmerican people. Their strategy was to\ndeny, distract, and distort at any cost. \nThey persisted no matter how ridiculous, how contrary to proven facts,\nor how dangerous their tactics were to the country. Trump banks on the notion that the American\npeople, especially his base, are ignorant and uninformed. They will not watch the hearings or read\nabout them and thus are extremely susceptible to whatever farfetched\nmachinations Trump spins. The fact that\nthe polls did not move after the hearings and the country remains evenly split\non impeachment ratifies this despicable approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nClearly Democrats were influenced by politics as well, swayed by the\nprospect of weakening Trump prior to the 2020 Election. However, Trump chose to extort Ukraine and\nregardless of any political interest, the Democrats are genuinely doing their\nsworn duty to uphold the Constitution. \nThroughout the hearings they overwhelmingly asked poignant, respectable\nquestions designed to elicit critical facts. \nRepublicans overwhelmingly used their time to lie to the American\npeople, focus on widely debunked conspiracy theories, raise wholly irrelevant\nmatters, and disgrace themselves by acting against our national interests,\ninstead favoring Russian interests and pushing Russian talking points. It would be an outrageous work of fiction if\nnot captured on live television. To\nbegin and end each session, Chairman Adam Schiff respectably elucidated on the\nfacts and the witnesses. Ranking member\nNunes distinguished himself much the opposite by continually outright lying,\ndenigrating career public servants, advocating for Russian interests, and\nhurting the country. Nunes and his\ncolleagues chose to be disgraceful while Schiff and his colleagues chose\ndignity. In fact, we recently learned\nthat Nunes himself engaged in highly inappropriate, illegal activity in\nfurtherance of Trump\u2019s scheme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTrump and the Congressional Republicans could have focused on minimizing\nthe possible consequences of his actions. \nAlthough it is hard to see how this was not important or not warranting\nserious action, they could at least make a credible argument against removing\nhim from office. Instead, they continue\nto insist Trump\u2019s dealing with Ukraine were \u201cperfect\u201d and the calls were\n\u201cperfect.\u201d They assert that Trump was\nmerely focused on anti-corruption efforts. \nThe evidence is much to the contrary. \nThe State Department, Intelligence Community, and Department of Defense\nhad all reviewed the Ukrainian arms sale and officially certified that Ukraine\nhad taken the proper steps against corruption. \nIn fact, Trump attacked Zelensky for terminating a corrupt prosecutor\nthat Trump had favored. Trump removed a\nhighly effective and respected ambassador, Marie Yovanovich, who was a\ncommitted anti-corruption champion. In\nalmost 3 years in office, Trump has not showed any interest whatsoever in\ncorruption anywhere in the world, including his own administration, yet he\nwants people to believe that in this once instance that was his only concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTrump utilized Rudy Giuliani, his private attorney who had never been\nappointed and held no official position, to do his dirty work and secretly\nmanipulate Ukraine. Trump kept the\nprofessional diplomatic staff in the dark while inexplicably having his EU\nAmbassador (Sondland) run Ukraine policy for him, despite having no relevant\nexperience. They engaged in clandestine\nactivity to withhold Congressionally approved military aid, aid they knew\nUkraine desperately needed, to force Ukraine to publicly declare investigations\ninto the Bidens and the 2016 election, knowing there was no legitimate basis\nfor either investigation. If the issue\nwas corruption, the corruption was by the Trump team, not Ukraine. This is another example of where Trump\nprioritizes his personal interests over our national interests in complete\ndisregard for our national security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nSimilarly, Trump is again clearly doing Putin\u2019s bidding, acting against\nU.S. interests. With the full ascent of\nhis Congressional allies, he is fulfilling Russian priorities and furthering\nRussian talking points. The thought of a\nU.S. President suborning himself to Russia is unfathomable, but here we are\nagain. Russia, our enemy, invaded\nUkraine, our partner, annexed the Crimea, occupies eastern Ukraine, and is\nfighting a war with the Ukrainian military. \nTheir goal is to recreate Ukraine as a Russian puppet. Trump delayed the military aid until the last\nminute, doing his utmost to help Russia and hurt Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers died during\nthis time. He released the aid right at\nthe end of the fiscal year and immediately upon learning that Congress had\nevidence of his wrongdoing. Getting\ncaught in the act is not a defense for any crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTrump continues to deny Russian interference in the 2016 Election,\nsomething overwhelmingly supported by the evidence. Trump and his Congressional enablers in the\nRussia Caucus (Nunes, Jordan, Collins, Gohmert, Ratcliffe, Chabot, et al) are\npushing the widely debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine that\ninterfered in the 2016 Election. That is\nentirely untrue, and they knowingly push this falsehood in service to Putin\u2019s\nRussia. Both the U.S. and Ukrainian\ngovernments know this to be the case, yet Trump did his best to force Ukraine\nto waste time and resources investigating this nonsense along with the\nBidens. Trump\u2019s only goal was to use\nUkraine to achieve a political advantage in the 2020 Election. Every member of the Senate received an\nintelligence briefing proving Ukraine did not interfere in 2016 and that this\nwas a Russian propaganda weapon against us. \nThe intelligence officials asked our leaders not to continue to push\nRussian talking points, as it was harmful to the country. Yet Trump and the Republicans continue to use\nthis to do this and hurt the American people. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republicans are prohibited in any way from acknowledging the slightest flaw or mistake in Trump\u2019s words and actions. This leaves them with the process. Unfortunately, they cannot even be honest when discussing that. Perhaps most importantly, while they accuse Democrats of an unfair process, the reality is that the process was established and enacted by the Republican majority led by Speaker John Boehner. Republicans falsely claim the White House did not have the opportunity to participate or to challenge the evidence. They most certainly did. However, the administration has chosen to obstruct and distort, intimidate witnesses, issue false statements, refuse to comply with subpoenas, and prevent witnesses from testifying or turning over documents. President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, Chief of Staff Mulvaney, and other leaders all refused to testify or provide statements. Republicans claimed the case was all hearsay with no primary witnesses. They cannot properly make that claim when they are withholding evidence and denying the primary witnesses from participating. Republicans put on a fallacious display to gain access to the depositions, falsely claiming they were not allowed in. The truth is that the committees that conducted the depositions were the standing committees on which they had full membership, all members had the ability to attend, and most Republicans fully participated. Therefore, the process is fundamentally fair and is producing reliable results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The truth is clear and the facts incontrovertible. The American people know what Trump did and believe it to be wrong. The focus is on what should happen. If impeachment goes through, the Senate determines what sanction to impose. Republicans want the country to acquiesce around the reality that we have a corrupt president, and this is just how Trump does things. \u201cGet over it\u2026\u201d They want us to simply accept that Trump uses personal and private means to conduct official business, all in secret from Congress and the American people. This is what they do in Russia and authoritarian regimes. It is not what we do in the U.S. and in free democracies. The rule of law and the Constitution must always reign supreme. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Trump was caught attempting to coerce Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 Election on his behalf. The key question was how he would choose to address his misconduct. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27,45,55,136,160,163,223,227,233,269,289,307,321],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-attorney-kenneth-diesenhof","tag-brockton","tag-city-of-champions","tag-impeachment","tag-keith-hayes","tag-ken-diesel","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-r-squared","tag-ret-us-army-jag-officer-col-robert-resnick","tag-sinista1","tag-the-booth","tag-ukraine","tag-whoobazoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}