Now that the Senate farce is winding down (Thanks Moscow Mitch!), here’s the good news.
GOP Senators and Trump’s defense team agree: there’s nothing impeachable or even wrong about with a politician abusing powers to steal an election — if they believe doing so is in the public interest.
Lamar Alexander:
The senator said he believed the House proved its case that Trump withheld nearly $400 million in military aid last year in part to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rivals, notably former Vice President Joe Biden. But that act, while “inappropriate,” was not impeachable, he said.
...“I was reminded during the arguments of how the founders, James Madison particularly, felt there should never ever be a wholly partisan impeachment,” he said, pointing to presentations by Trump’s counsel.
Marco Rubio:
"... I will not vote to remove the President because doing so would inflict extraordinary and potentially irreparable damage to our already divided nation."
So. What Rubio is saying is this:
1) Trump did the things in regard to Ukraine that have been alleged. ("New witnesses that would testify to the truth of the allegations are not needed for my threshold analysis, which already assumed that all the allegations made are true," Rubio wrote.)
2) Partisan impeachment is bad.
3) He is voting against removing the President.
Alan Dershowitz:
In response to a question from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about whether it mattered if Trump engaged in a "quid pro quo," Dershowitz said motive was what mattered and if an act was in the public interest, it was not impeachable. And he said it was reasonable for a public official to equate what is in their own political interest with the public good.
"Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest," he said. "And if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment."
emphasis added
In case anyone has forgotten, Trump complained Obama spied on his campaign.
Last week, President Trump triggered the left when he tweeted a Photoshopped picture that portrayed former President Barack Obama perched midair outside Trump Tower, binoculars and listening device in hand.
…The IG report also did more than confirm the Crossfire Hurricane team accessed some Trump campaign communications: It established that accessing Page’s communications with the Trump campaign was the goal of the FISA order.
For instance, a case agent working the Crossfire Hurricane investigation explained to the IG’s team that because Page had just “returned from his trip to Russia” before the Republicans’ national convention, the FBI’s “belief was that Page was involved in the platform change [concerning Ukraine] and the team was hoping to find evidence of that in their review of the FISA collections of Page’s email accounts.”
Trump wants to know why no one has gotten the stolen server back from Ukraine.
WASHINGTON — President Trump in July asked the president of Ukraine to “do us a favor” by looking into an American cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike, and the location of a Democratic National Committee server that Mr. Trump said was believed to be in Ukraine’s possession.
“I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say CrowdStrike … I guess you have one of your wealthy people … The server, they say Ukraine has it,” Mr. Trump said during a phone call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on July 25, according to a reconstruction of the call based on notes and voice recognition transcription software. Administration officials said the ellipses in the transcript represent words that trailed off or were inaudible.
This has all been part of a determined messaging strategy from the right, from the White House on Down, all over FOX and the right wing echo machine, that the real criminals were always the Democrats, that Obama and the Deep State (the FBI, CIA, NSA, the State Department, etc.) were all working together to spy on Trump to steal the election for Hillary.
Well, it’s now official — none of this is criminal if the people involved believe it’s in the Public Interest. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts has presided over this with no objections. The GOP Senators have embraced this with barely a qualm. So...
It’s time for ALL of the Republicans and their Right Wing Media Fake News apparatchiks to apologize to Obama, Hillary, and the Deep State.
Q.E.D.
When Trump supporters try to rub his acquittal in your face, give it right back to them. Demand they either give an apology for all those mean things they said, or admit they are total partisan frauds.
The media should ask Trump if he’s ready to apologize now, when he tries to take his victory lap. Ask him when he’s going to start his apology tour.