Difficult to maintain free, fair U.S. elections

Speculation is that in an upcoming book by John Bolton, the former national security adviser, claims that President Donald Trump told him that he wanted to freeze aid to Ukraine until the country aided investigations into Democrat and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

One of the president’s chief defenders, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, responded in the Senate on Jan. 27, that “nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abusive power or an impeachable offense.” GOP senators responsible for passing judgment on the president’s behavior seem to be warming to this notion.

My question is, would any actions of this type ever rise to the level of an impeachable offense? Would there be no limit to the number of foreign leaders the president could ask to announce investigations into political rivals in exchange for release of congressionally mandated foreign aid?

If so, where would it end? How would a candidate from the opposing party have any chance of being elected if the incumbent was free to ask other countries for help in besmirching that candidate — either to benefit his or her reelection or the election of a successor candidate from the same party? With such a corrupt benefit to incumbency, that party could hold on to the White House in perpetuity.

Based on the apparent eagerness to acquit the president, the GOP leadership in the Senate appears close to setting a precedent that such behavior would not be impeachable. It then could become difficult for anyone to claim that U.S. elections are “free and fair.”

KEN PERKINS

Squirrel Hill