GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell
That was CNN’s headline on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, after House Democrats met to decide on a course of action. (Read story here.)
Screw him.*
If a Democrat did a fraction of what Trump has done, he’d be calling for his head. McConnell is loyal to his party and its agenda, not his country. He doesn’t believe in “the majority rules.” When Democrats held the White House and Congress, he used his minority leader’s powers to obstruct them at every turn. When Obama was elected, McConnell said, “My number one priority is making sure he’s a one-term president.” He was talking about the man America’s voters had just chosen to leader our country. It isn’t even about protecting the minority party’s rights. What McConnell wants is Republican dictatorship, no matter who the voters choose to lead us.
(* This is a family blog, and kids may read it, so I can’t use the term I really want to.)
This op-ed spells out how Trump betrayed his country and deserves impeachment. But there are no circumstances under which McConnell would allow Trump’s removal. Even if it subverts our democracy. And even if it’s a crime. And certainly not for extorting the president of Ukraine to smear the Democratic frontrunner.
Let’s be clear about something here. Trump, a profoundly dishonest man, doesn’t want the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens and then say, “they didn’t do anything wrong or illegal.” He wants dirt, the kind of damning dirt that destroys a candidate (and the chance he might lose the 2020 election to that candidate, who currently leads Trump in polls), even if the Ukrainian government has to fabricate it. A report exonerating Biden does him no good, and would make him — not Biden — look bad to American voters. Finding the Bidens innocent isn’t an option.
In fact, that came up in the Democratic meeting. As NBC reporter Heidi Pryzbyla pointed out (here), the Ukrainian government has “already disputed” the GOP’s accusations against Biden, and the Democrats believe Trump asked the Ukrainians to “manufacture evidence” against him. The allegations that Hunter Biden’s business dealings were “corrupt” — the term Republicans use — aren’t new, have long since been looked into and debunked by journalists, and are merely a rightwing conspiracy theory (read the details here.)
But we know this president loves rightwing conspiracy theories. He was the #1 promoter of birtherism. He falsely claimed that “thousands” of Muslims “cheered” the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11/01. And he has promoted numerous other conspiracy theories hatched in rightwing propaganda factories. Those aren’t impeachable offenses. But using the power of the Presidency to extort a foreign leader to fabricate charges against a political rival is. That office, and its authority, belongs to the American people — not for him to use as he pleases, as if it were private property.
Now let me provide some background for what’s going on.
Ukraine was once part of the Soviet Union, and suffered terribly under Stalin’s rule. There’s no love lost between Ukrainians and Russians. Putin generally left Ukraine alone when his toady ran things in Kiev, but when he was overthrown, Putin seized the Crimea, part of Ukraine’s sovereign territory. That was somewhat understandable, even if inexcusable, because Russia has vital naval bases there. But Putin also is arming eastern Ukraine’s ethnic Russians who are fighting to break away from Ukraine and annex that territory to Russia. Some of those rebels are suspected of being disguised Russian troops.
Putin also doesn’t like the new Ukrainian government’s cozy relationships with western Europe; he doesn’t want NATO bases on his doorstep. Ukrainian President Zelensky, who like Trump is a former TV star without previous government experience, is worried about Moscow’s aggression against his now independent country. But Ukraine is very weak, militarily and economically, and needs assistance from the West to fend off the Russians. Trump can provide it. The bargaining power of the two parties is very unqueal; Trump is in a position to demand political favors from the Ukrainian leader, and it’s now clear he’s done so.
This blew up last week when it became public that a whistleblower in the intelligence community filed a confidential complaint (through proper channels, using the procedure specified by federal statute). That individual has not come forward, and so far as we know has done nothing illegal or inappropriate (i.e., he’s not a leaker), but journalists have learned from their other sources that the complaint involves one or more phone conversations between Trump and Zelensky, including one on July 24, 2019 that is now figuring prominently in this story. At that time, the Mueller report was dominating the news. Just days before that call, Trump held up $250 million of military assistance to Ukraine, and now, to Democrats, that looks an awful lot like extortion.
Trump has now released that hold and Ukraine will get its assistance. Trump also says he’ll release a transcript of that call. And later on Wednesday, Senate Republicans joined Senate Democrats in passing a unanimous (but non-binding) resolution calling on the administration to release the whistleblower complaint to Congress — but that’s no big deal; it’s required by law.
Democrats probably won’t be satisfied with a transcript; they’ll want the tape, and forensic examination of the tape, to determine whether the transcript has scrubbed or the tape has been doctored. It’s reasonable to assume that Trump might erase everything that incriminates him from anything he releases, given his history of lying, tampering with witnesses and evidence, and obstructing justice.
Impeachment is a political, not legal, process. It’s not automatic when a president violates the law, abuses power, or commits crimes. It’s a viable remedy for presidential misconduct only when a substantial portion of the public, including some of the people who originally voted for him, want him out of office.
Until now, Speaker Pelosi, the leader of the Democratic House caucus, has discouraged impeachment talk because she sensed that level of public support wasn’t there, and she worried that the fallout from launching impeachment proceedings could hurt Democratic candidates in the next election — perhaps even jeopardize her party’s House majority.
But on Monday, Sept. 23, 2019, Washington insiders described the situation on Capitol Hill as a “dam breaking.” In particular, several vulnerable freshman Democrats from swing districts whom Pelosi was trying to protect publicly called for impeachment proceedings to begin, and later that night pundits said Pelosi’s resistance to impeachment was “crumbling.” The next day, it did.
Where this goes, and how far it goes, depends on the still-unknown details of what occurred in Trump’s phone conversations with President Zelensky. He has admitted he asked Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden. A definite link between him withholding military aid and that request has yet to be established, but given the timing, it’s highly likely Trump used that aid to strongarm Zelensky.
If that’s how things develop, then expect Trump and his allies to argue that Zelensky was agreeable to Trump’s request and didn’t have to be extorted — therefore, no harm, no foul. That will be a hard sell to his critics, but his supporters would eat it up.
To McConnell, it won’t matter if Trump can’t explain away his scandalous behavior. He doesn’t give a damn whether Trump committed impeachable offenses, or engaged in conduct beyond the pale. He’ll stand by his man, come hell or high water. McConnell would crucify Jesus if He was a Democrat and tried to help the poor. “Moscow Mitch” is about power and agenda, not patriotism, America’s interests, or democracy.