To impeached Trump, Washington’s warning on foreign influence was for losers
By: Larry Hanover
Tags: Impeachment, 2020 Presidential Race, 2016 Election, Donald Trump, Politics

Well, I would think that, if they (Ukraine) were honest about it, they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens. … And, by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens. — Donald Trump, Oct. 2, 2019

Donald Trump has splattered graffiti all over one of the foundational truths laid out by George Washington nearly 225 years ago. For that, tonight he was impeached. In the words of our first president, he and his Republican enablers are “tools and dupes,” sacrificing our very Constitution to foreign influence for their own gain.

Trump is playing to his base only. That’s what he always does. As for his fellow Republicans, former GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona recently said he thinks at least 35 Republican senators would vote for Trump’s removal if they could do so in private. But rather than face the wrath of the president and his supporters, they will suck up and do his bidding.

However, let’s not get caught up in the legalese of the impeachment articles. Let’s remember this moment’s core truth: Trump is, and continues to be, a danger to our national elections and our republic.

Our elections are everything. Without fair elections, we’re just another “fake news” republic like Russia. Power is handed down as a right and goes uncontrolled. Without fair elections, foreign hackers are free to spew truly “fake news” on social media in an effort, as they did in 2016, to persuade black voters to stay home rather come out and vote for Clinton. And honestly earned votes for the opposition are nullified.

Yet Trump and his consiglieres have abided by the motto that “if you ain’t cheatin,’ you ain’t tryin.’” In June 2016, at the notorious Trump Tower meeting, Don Jr. openly solicited Russian help in digging up dirt on Hillary Clinton, with his only regret being that he came up empty. The following month, Trump publicly invited the Putin gang to plumb her emails — Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. The report from independent counsel Robert Mueller tells us they were on the electronic hunt within five hours. And in August 2016, Trump would find out from now-jailed criminal Roger Stone that emails about Clinton were on the way. He welcomed the poison rather than alert law enforcement.

Then, rather than take the high ground and confront Russia not to interfere again in 2020, Trump turned into Putin’s poodle two years ago at the Helsinki summit. In perhaps the lowest point of America’s foreign relations in the 21st century, Trump rebuked his own intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in America’s elections, instead siding with Putin. Then there’s our gaping vulnerabilities. The Senate Intelligence Committee found every one of the 50 states’ election systems was targeted by Russia. Yet Trump has ignored his oath of office and we remain undefended.

Finally, on July 25, an unshackled Trump set his sights on the undermining the 2020 election. He asked in classic Mafioso fashion for a “favor” from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his election opponent Joe Biden and son Hunter. Zelensky, in a hot war with Trump’s Russian ally, would be left without the $391 million in desperately needed military aid and without a meeting with the president to show U.S. support for his government. To avoid that fate, the ransom would be to publicly announce a Biden investigation on CNN. If the investigation were in the public interest, as Trump and the GOP argue, why was Zelensky referred to the shadowy private attorney Rudy Giuliani?

Fortunately for Ukraine, Trump was caught by a whistleblower’s complaint and folded to hide his corrupt act.

In 2016, the offenses were murkier because Trump did not yet have the power of the presidency. With Ukraine, Trump clearly wielded the power of the presidency against our own national security by threatening to weaken it military and politically, simultaneously using that power and American financial resources to bolster his 2020 campaign. If that isn’t impeachable, nothing is.

We don’t know why Trump kowtows to Putin. Maybe he just admires strongmen and autocrats. Maybe he admires how Putin controls the media and, in select cases, has them assassinated. Or maybe the man who continued to pursue a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 election, despite saying otherwise, is beholden to them financially. It’s Spycraft 101 to know that when Trump was checking on Ukraine investigations in a cellphone call with Ambassador Gordon Sondland that was overheard by colleagues, his conversations surely were swept up by Russian intelligence. Who knows what other compromising information the Russians have on him?

“The president is an ongoing threat to our national security and the integrity of our elections,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated as the final countdown began yesterday to the final impeachment vote.

She spoke with a clarity that history will remember.

Sadly, there is no real hope to remove this dangerous president. The Senate will not convict. I wondered on July 24, after Mueller’s testimony fell flat, what Trump was capable of. It turned out he took only one day to move on into new and more abusive acts, seeking to coerce an ally into trying to take down Biden. I shudder to think what irreparable damage a re-elected and emboldened Trump, having survived Senate trial, could wreak to the United States. Our democracy may be unrecognizable. Clearly, corruption will run rampant and free in ways never seen before in our nation.

But before I wrap up, here are some crucial, parting words to put today’s impeachment in perspective.

SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!

— Donald J. Trump’s Twitter, Dec. 18, 2019