SIZING UP THE PRESIDENCY

Readers take on Donald Trump, his detractors and talk of impeachment

IN ACCORDANCE with the old curse, we live in interesting times. And fulfilling the curse, distressing times. Especially given our president’s relentless attack on a free press — meaning, the media’s written and spoken words. Trump dangerously calls open, factual coverage of him and his administration “fake news.” Many thus think that Trump can do no wrong and the media is “the enemy.”

The foundation of our freedom includes a free press, without which tyranny can blossom. Of all the dangers to our country today, the blatant denigration of the media is the greatest. The press is doing and must continue its job: educating the public with the facts. The Journal and its readers should take every opportunity to speak out against Trump’s efforts to render the press powerless. JANE GAGNE Albuquerque

Media puts agenda before reporting

ROBERT SAMUELSON’S (column) on impeachment (“Loose impeachment talk risks damaging nation,” May 31) was correct. The process, the Constitution, the unshakable system has never failed to curtail damage as well as limit success, and we must give it a chance.

One reason Trump won the election was his endless attack on his challengers. The media is using the same technique when dealing with Trump. At every level the media has gone from reporting the news to interpreting the news.

Although Trump is his own worst enemy, a bull in the china shop of diplomacy, the media as a group has used his indiscretions to promote its own agenda. The endless “breaking stories” in the evening news should be renamed broken stories, as it has become more and more difficult to watch television stations like CBS, FOX and NBC as they have all slipped into a National Enquirer approach to reporting. Sensationalism rules the day.

We live in dangerous times, and the course of events may hinge on factors beyond our control, but the strength of the country depends on its unity. We must remember that we are Americans before we are Republicans or Democrats. The pendulum swings both left and right, and over time a balance is struck. JOE LOVATO Albuquerque

Trump has admitted criminal act

THE CASE FOR obstruction of justice against the president really is as simple as the interview with NBC news. The president directly stated that he fired the director of the FBI to stop the investigation into his ties to Russia.

At that moment, the question of whether he or anyone in his campaign actually colluded with the Russians became academic. That’s not to say that I don’t want future scholarship to get to the bottom of the question — I do feel that Americans deserve to know the truth — but it does mean the existence or lack thereof of collaboration is irrelevant to the question of whether this president is fit to serve.

The obstruction in itself tarnishes the credibility of the office to the point that I can no longer have any confidence that the executive is acting in the best interests of the American people as a whole. Perhaps the Constitution is flawed in not providing a mechanism for a vote of “no confidence,” and perhaps some day such an amendment could be added.

However, until then, the closest process prescribed by the Constitution is impeachment, and I believe the case has already been proved. ROBERT SABATINI Albuquerque

Ignorance, blunders mark Trump

I NEVER THOUGHT that the U.S. would ever become what it is becoming today! The president, by copying Third World despots, has put his family in charge of large parts of our government. The Republicans think they are the rulers, but it’s obvious the president and the fear of his supporters truly rules.

He has alienated our allies and allied himself with one side of a religious war in the Middle East, something no other U.S. official would even consider. America is now just a munitions sales group. Next, the military will be mercenaries for hire. Send money, we send troops.

He knows so little of our economy that he says Germany is bad for our economy and is costing us jobs; his rhetoric could convince them to take their auto factories — of which there are several employing thousands of Americans— and move to either Canada or Mexico that would be overjoyed to have more employment. Germany bad for America, right!

There’s more, but that’s enough. For those who would say just another crazy Democrat, no just a 73-year-old Independent who votes candidates not parties. ROGER ELKINS Las Cruces

Democrats’ wrongdoing is ignored

NOW THAT THE Democrats got their demands for a special counsel to lead a federal investigation into allegations that Donald Trump’s campaign collaborated with Russia to sway the 2016 election that put him in the White House with the Justice Department appointing Robert Mueller to lead the investigation, hopefully his completed investigation will finally put an end to this ongoing saga, and maybe our elected politicians in Washington can start doing their jobs they were elected to do by legislating and passing equal, fair and meaningful health care, regulations reform, and tax reform for the citizens of this country.

It’s definitely going to be very interesting to hear and see what comes out of the completed investigation of the Russia matter, but how come there were never any special counsels appointed to investigate the Obama administration’s Solyndra, Fast and Furious, IRS, Benghazi, NSA spy(ing), Hillary Clinton’s missing emails and the Clinton Foundation scandals?

Nobody in that administration was ever indicted and prosecuted for the wrongdoing they did in those scandals. No wonder James Comey was fired! When it comes to politics, how come the mainstream media in this country is very selective as to what the Democratic columnists write about in newspapers, and what the Democratic news reporters report and show to viewers on TV? JOHN HOLLENBACK Greenfield Township, Pa.