Forgive the puppy-speak in my title. My 3 pooches helped me write this.
File this news report away as another museum-quality exhibit from the era of Trumptastically Incompetent Government, but it would appear that someone on tRump’s staff sent out their latest PR-tested talking points about how to defend the dear misLeader’s clearly corrupt behavior and misuse of his office to pressure Ukraine into opening an investigation into Biden and his son for firing a prosecutor that everyone agreed was corrupt and was never investigating Hunter Biden to begin with. But, somehow, all those talking points were not sent to the great zombie army of conspiracy theorists, also known as congressional Republicans. Nay, they were sent instead to...wait for it...every Democratic member of Congress.
My first thought when I read this story was how can people who are so obsessed with order and authority and PR-testing every message make such a backassward mistake. Then, I remembered, hey, they are Trumpkins after all. Nothing is too ridiculous. So, unless they somehow thought their propaganda was so convincing that they purposely sent it to their opponents because they thought it would make them flee in panic, it does appear to be just another bumbling, Trump-brained mistake.
My second thought was why the hell don’t Democrats ever seem to get their own professionally crafted talking points and try to collectively stay on message. We can haz talking points 2, as my dogs reminded me. And, we might sorta need to get our crap together if, you know, we expect to get 20 Republicans in the Senate to be so shammed and disgusted by their leader’s corruption that they have no choice but to vote to impeach him...because that is exactly what it will take for this “inquiry” to be anything other than an exercise in futility.
Well, I know getting Democrats organized is like getting a herd of GumpyCats to like my dogs’ pictures on Facebook. So, I don’t expect them to get disciplined any time soon. But, don’t worry, cuz Ima help you out, Dems. Uncle Tekno’s got yer talking points right here. It’s not a verbatim response to everything they said, but I think it addresses the most important points they made. Please let me know what you think about the talking points below as a way of answering the Republicon spin. Let me know if you have more points of your own or other information of any kind.
Press reports have said things about the call that are just flat-out true.
- The transcript clearly shows there was a quid pro quo.
- Asking for “a favor” is a quid pro quo, by definition. Duh.
- Using the apparatus of the state, like the Attorney General’s office, as a tool for personal vendettas against your political opponent is precisely what Nixon did.
- Using the power of your office to solicit personal favors for your political campaign is the very definition of corruption and exactly what the founders had in mind when they created impeachment.
- This is why a plurality of now support impeaching Trump
Trump knows the conspiracy theories about Biden are false, so he tried to extort Ukraine into manufacturing dirt on him.
- Vice-President Biden did NOT get a prosecutor fired who was investigating his son because his son was never under investigation.
- The prosecutor began investigating the oil company Hunter Biden worked for regarding issues that happened years before he got there. The investigation found nothing and had stopped long before Joe Biden asked that the prosecutor be fired. When did this, it was at the urging of numerous European allies, the International Monetary Fund, and Obama officials who all agreed that the prosecutor was corrupt and ineffective.
- The only one trying to corrupt an investigation here is Trump.
- Withholding security funds that Congress had already approved as a means of extracting personal favors is not only corrupt, it endangers national security.
- Trump also asked Zelenskiy to figure out if any Ukrainians knew who spilled the beans on his connections to Putin and the 2016 election interference.
- Trump is obsessed with conspiracy theories that there is a secret server somewhere in Ukraine that contains Hillary’s emails. There is no missing server or missing emails. Even those 33,000 messages marked personal by Clinton’s staff and deleted before they were subpoenaed were already recovered and examined by the FBI. They found nothing wrong.
- Trump is just bitter and can’t get over losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. Let it go. You’re embarassing yourself.
Trump’s explanations don’t add up.
- Trump’s new excuse—that he withheld military aid because he thought the Europeans needed to give military aid to Ukraine as well--doesn’t add up.
- Giving miliatry aid to Ukraine was Trump’s idea. The Europeans have said from the very beginning that they would give humanitarian aid but not military aid. Trump said he would go further than the Europeans or the Obama administration by giving military aid. Now, he suddenly acts like those years of conversations never happened and unilaterally suspending his own aid would somehow cause other countries to give the military aid that they said all along they would not give. That makes no sense.
- After the whistleblower complaint came out, Trump suddenly released the aid. What changed? No one else gave Ukraine military aid. His excuse is a lie.
The whistleblower claims have so far all proven to be correct and Trump’s attempt to hide records related to the call constitute a cover-up.
- Trump himself has admitted to the basic facts alleged by the whistleblower and his summary of the call backs this up as well.
- So, the fact that the whistleblower heard some of the information alleged in the complaint “second hand” does not discredit the information, since the parties involved have now already admitted the information is true.
- It is standard practice for phone calls with world leaders to be recorded and for aides to listen in. That is exactly what was done with this conversation. It was only after the whistleblower complaint came out that records of it were eliminated.
- Trump’s lawyers and aides are hiding the records of this conversation because they know it constitues an impeachable offense. That is why they are now hiding behind claims of privacy and Executive Privilege.
- Hiding this information constitutes an additional crime.