Suddenly gossip is worthy as whistleblowing

THE LONGER the move to impeach Trump goes on, the more surreal it seems.

It was triggered by the claim of a so-called “whistleblower” who never witnessed the supposed events he/she describes; it’s all second-hand or worse. Such an account is usually called “gossip,” not “whistleblowing.”

The “whistleblower’s” identity is being kept secret, and hence we cannot independently vet him/her to check out his/her credibility, even though a claim has been made that he/she is politically biased against the president.

The “whistleblower’s” earthshaking claim is that the president obstructed justice by placing the account of his call to Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy in a secure site, even though this is now routinely done with comparable presidential communications to protect against leaks.

Far from suppressing the Zelenskiy conversation, Trump took the unusual step of making the ... transcript public . ...

Democrats and news media act as if it were all about asking Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens. Nothing could be further from the truth. Much of it was establishing a sort of mutual admiration society, congratulating each other on election victories and other accomplishments. America’s assistance to Ukraine was lavishly praised by both parties.

Trump did ask for “a favor,” but no quid pro quo was implied. Zelenskiy said he did not feel pressured; and the Ukrainian foreign minister said nothing was improper. The favor asked was investigating the CrowdStrike company and other potentially illicit activities involving Ukrainians possibly contributing to inspiring the Mueller investigation.

Trump also made a brief two-sentence reference to the Bidens as “the other thing,” clearly of secondary importance. Zelenskiy later promised to check into CrowdStrike, but neither mentioned Biden again.

In short, gossip, aka whistleblowing, from an unknown source is used to impeach a duly elected president over a “suppressed” conversation that Trump released, ... in which a foreign leader was supposedly pressured to investigate Biden, even though said leader says he was not pressured, and Biden was very secondary to other matters.

Surreal, indeed. DAVID C. WILLIAMS Albuquerque