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Having utterly failed with their impeachment-due-to-Russian-collusion storyline, Democrats have found a new and exciting line of inquiry, which could lead to their goal of impeaching President Donald Trump.
And this time, they say, the president has truly gone too far. This time, he has really stepped in it, committed a high crime or certainly a misdemeanor of some sort. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will meet with House members today to discuss the prospects of moving forward with a fresh impeachment investigation.
Pelosi is scheduled to make an announcement on impeachment today after meeting with House Democrats. Some 164 House Dems are now publicly supporting impeachment.
This time, the president allegedly messed up by calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and pressing him to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his shady deal with Burisma Holdings, an energy and exploration company in the Ukraine, where Biden’s son was named a board member and given a boatload of money (reportedly, $50,000 per month) for that privilege in 2014.
Hey, wasn’t Joe Biden shuttling back and forth to the Ukraine in 2014 in a diplomatic capacity, trying to prop up the shaky government in Kiev after Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula? Wasn’t Biden was offering U.S. aid packages and sweet-talking the Ukrainians into making reforms at the same time? Isn’t President Trump right? Doesn’t Hunter’s high-paying new job with a Ukrainian firm occurring at the same time his Dad was rooting around in the country warrant an investigation?
On Saturday, Biden told reporters, “I’ve never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.” So, I guess that’s the end of any real investigative journalism on that subject.
The real crime, according to Democrats, is Trump’s phone call to Zelensky. But what, exactly, did Trump do?
What Democrats are alleging is that the president used his office and his authority over foreign aid in order to harass Biden in his bid for the presidency in 2020. They base those allegations on the report of an unnamed whistleblower lodged with the inspector general.
On Monday, Trump admitted that a phone call was made to Zelensky and that Biden was mentioned but denied charges that he threatened to withhold foreign aid from the Ukraine if Biden’s son was not investigated.
Democrats claim that, according to a whistleblower, Trump pressured Zelensky to reopen an investigation about possible corruption involving Biden and his son in the country. Trump allegedly told Zelensky that he should work with Rudy Guiliani, the president’s lawyer, on whether allegations against Biden were true. Democrats also allege that Trump threatened to withhold military aid ($250 million) and State Department funds ($141 million) if an investigation into Biden’s dealings didn’t occur.
On Tuesday, Trump, as defiant as ever, dismissed the charges against him (whatever they are), claiming that they are some sort of political stunt. “I’m leading in the polls, they have no idea how to stop me,” Trump told reporters. “The only way they can try is through impeachment.”
“I think it’s ridiculous, it’s a witch hunt,” the president said. Then, referring specifically to his call with Zelensky, he said, “That call was perfect. It couldn’t have been nicer.”
On September 19, Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) stirred the pot on Twitter: “A few weeks ago in Ukraine, I met with President Zelensky and we discussed the surprise cut off of aid and the inappropriate demands the Trump Campaign was making of him. The obvious question everyone in Kiev was asking was — were the two things connected?”
On Tuesday afternoon, the president announced on Twitter that he has authorized the release of a transcript of his phone call with Zelensky. “I am currently at the United Nations representing our country, but have authorized the release tomorrow of the complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript of my phone call with President Zelensky of Ukraine.”
The president added, “You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a continuation of the greatest and most destructive witch hunt of all time!”
Meanwhile, Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) the chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence announced, “We have been informed by the whistleblower’s counsel that their client would like to speak to our committee and has requested guidance from the acting DNI [Director of National Intelligence] as to how to do so.”
Schiff reports that the whistleblower may testify as early as this week.
But the release of the call transcript may render any testimony moot. Depending on exactly what’s in the transcript, the whistleblower’s thoughts on whether Trump’s call was threatening will either be confirmed or not, right?
But don’t expect the Democrats to drop the subject no matter what the transcript shows. With no substantive ideas — merely promises of government giveaways — and poor candidates, their only chance of winning in 2020 relies on the personal destruction of Donald Trump.
Image: stuartmiles99 / iStock / Getty Images Plus
