It’s game, set, match for Trump on Ukraine
On the left
Even thoughWashington always resembles a three-ring circus, lastweek it seemed even more so. Republicans were up to all kinds of stupid tricks, trying to undermine or discredit the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump nowunderway in the House of Representatives.
FromRepublican ranks, itwas one silly stunt after another.
Republicans tried, but failed, to force aHouse vote to censure Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chair of the intelligence committee. For what? Holding hearings? Doing his job? Trump himself, clearly starting to panic as more evidence against him piles up, wentwhere he always goeswhen backed into a corner: He put on his racist hat and called the inquiry a “lynching.”
Next, one day after getting their marching orders from Trump at the WhiteHouse, amotley gang ofHouse Republicans stormed into a secure hearing roomof the intelligence committee with cellphone cameras rolling to disrupt the deposition of Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Laura Cooper. “We Republicans have been locked out of this process,” they complained to reporters. Which, let’s face it, is a lie.
Everyword of testimony heard in private (in advance of, and in preparation for, public hearings) has been before members of theHouse Intelligence, Oversight and Judiciary committees— with all members, including 45 Republicans, given equal opportunity to question witnesses. It’s all being done by the books, as spelled out in the Constitution andHouse rules.
Then, Donald had his attorney play his Trump card. Even if Trump’s guilty as sin, attorneyWilliam Consovoy told a federal court, there’s nothingCongress nor the Justice Department can do about it. Consovoy said even if Trump stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shot someone, as he promised during the 2016 campaign, lawenforcement authorities could not prosecute him— because the president is above the law.
That rumble you hear is every one of the Founding Fathers rolling in their graves.
Why such desperationmoves by Trump and his brain-dead followers?
Two reasons. One, they have no choice but to attack the “process” because there’s noway they can defend the “substance” of Trump’s phone call with the president of Ukraine— and most of them don’t even try.
Two, because they knowtheir goose is cooked.
Actually, it’s been cooked for a couple ofweeks. We knowfor a fact: Trump withheld $391 million in military assistance approved by Congress for Ukraine unless Ukraine agreed to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, his likely Democratic opponent in 2020. And Trump delivered that message himself in a July 25 phone call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. We knowthat’s what happened from multiple sources: fromthe initial whistleblower complaint; from the memo of the call released by the White House; fromtexts between Trump envoys to the region, also released by the WhiteHouse; fromthe acting White House chief of staff, who admitted there was a quid pro quo; and fromTrump himself, who still insists therewasn’t.
But the coup de grace came in the testimony ofWilliam Taylor.
Taylor is not some Democratic operative. He is a career diplomat. He is Trump’s acting ambassador to Ukraine, personally recruited for the job by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In his testimony, Taylor related how, in aNational Security Council conference call, hewas informed by a budget official that under direct orders fromTrump, conveyed through acting chief of staff MickMulvaney, military aid to Ukraine was being withheld untilUkraine agreed to investigate the Bidens.
Taylor is one of eight diplomats who have confirmed under oath efforts by Trump and Rudy Giuliani to get Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 campaign. True to form, Trump responded by calling Taylor a “Never Trumper Republican” and “human scum,” but the damagewas done. Taylor’s testimony is the most damning evidence yet of a presidential quid pro quo: military aid for political dirt. Which is wrong, illegal and an impeachable offense.
With Taylor’s testimony, Trump’s defense crumbled. Sure, Republican clowns in Congress will stage more distractions. But they’rewasting their time. As Florida Republican Francis Rooney noted, “Iwould say game, set, match on that.”
Trump will be impeached. It’s no longer a question of if, but when.