Cruz falls in line
Despite GOP insistence, there’s no comparing Ukraine’s actions to that of Russia’s in 2016.
Any hope that Sen. Ted Cruz might put partisanship aside to objectively consider impeachment articles calling for President Trump’s removal from office were blown away like dust by his unequivocal embrace of the false assertion that Ukraine was as guilty as Russia of hacking the 2016 presidential election.
At a time when this country desperately needs objective leadership from public officials with the type of constitutional knowledge Harvard Law graduate Cruz possesses, he has instead decided to follow a path of political expedience. “Ukraine blatantly interfered in our election,” Cruz said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” knowing full well the facts do not support his case.
Cruz isn’t alone. Other Republicans similarly tied to Trump’s political future are also repeating the canard that Ukraine did as much as Russia to interfere with the 2016 election. Even if that were true, it would not excuse treating Trump’s alleged abuse of the Constitution as if it were an inappropriately timed belch.
The Republicans’ collective flop is an open invitation for Trump to assume monarchical power. If the founders of this nation wanted a king, they wouldn’t have created a three-legged system to keep each branch of government in check, including the presidency.
Cruz is mirroring Trump by suggesting the debunked Ukraine story is reason enough to disregard the House’s impeachment inquiry.
It’s ironic that Trump, who has done nothing but bash the news media ever since he decided to run for president, has settled on an allegation made in a Politico article two years ago as a defense for his treatment of Ukraine.
The Politico article said some Ukrainian officials were so concerned about Trump’s close ties to Russia, which invaded their country in 2014, that they sought ways to help Hilary Clinton to win the 2016 election.
Nothing the Ukrainians did came close to the state-run disinformation campaign personally directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to help put Trump in the White House. Yet Cruz insists Ukraine was as bad as Russia.
“The sitting ambassador from Ukraine wrote an op-ed blasting Donald Trump during the election season,” said Cruz. Apparently, the senator never heard the old saying about sticks and stones hurting more that words. Russia hurled sticks, stones and the kitchen sink at America’s presidential election in an effort to impact its results. He doesn’t need us to remind him, but we’ll say it anyway: Writing an op-ed in a newspaper rebutting criticism of one’s country doesn’t come close to counting as illegal “interference” with an American election.
The Mueller Report detailed how Putin’s apparatchiks spent millions of dollars to sway American public opinion. They used fake web ads, social media accounts and even staged demonstrations to sow dissension among traditional Democratic supporters, African Americans in particular. More than two dozen Russians were indicted for illegal interference with the 2016 election.
Even if Ukraine wanted to, it was incapable of waging an assault of that magnitude. Its meager resources are why the embattled nation was so desperate to make amends with Trump for any past offenses and free its U.S. military aid.
Cruz’s promotion of the ridiculous claim that Ukraine somehow was guilty of the same kind of illegal campaign to distort the 2016 election in Trump’s favor is more than disingenuous. It threatens to reduce his role as juror in the likely impeachment trial of the president to a farce.
The Constitution gives to senators like Cruz the authority to decide, should the House approve articles of impeachment, whether misconduct by the president is grave enough to warrant his removal from office. That serious responsibility requires each of its members to cast aside political aspirations for justice’s sake.
By pushing the discredited theory that Ukraine tried to do what Russia did in 2016, only to help Clinton instead of Trump, Cruz is making a mockery of his responsibility and sets the Senate on a path toward trampling over the principles that for more than 240 years have defined our democracy.
The president is not a king; he is not above the law. He has a right to defend himself before Congress, but its members are not bound to do that for him.