The day after Trump’s own top diplomat in Ukraine gave smoking gun bombshell testimony that should be the end of his tenure in the Oval Office, a gang of Republican congressmen tried to create a distraction by staging a hissy fit that violated national security protocols. The depth of their fraudulent attack on the impeachment process was readily apparent, as more than a quarter of the Republican congressmen who stormed the secure impeachment hearing are themselves members of relevant committees authorized to have attended. They could have complied with protocols, protected national security, and just walked in without any drama at all.
This is where we are. This is how corrupt and dangerous Republicans have become. In congressional testimony, acting ambassador William Taylor confirmed that Trump tried to strong-arm Ukraine into smearing a potential Trump political opponent in exchange for security assistance that had been authorized by Congress, and a personal meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The attempted extortion had been going on for months. Asking, much less demanding, a foreign nation to damage the political standing of a domestic political rival is illegal in itself. It is an impeachable offense at face value.
A quid pro quo was not necessary for Trump’s behavior to have been a crime, but Republicans tried to obscure that fact, demanding proof of evidence that wasn’t needed. But the evidence was there, even before Taylor’s testimony. And then Taylor confirmed and elaborated on it. In fact, the attempted extortion was happening long before the phone call that alarmed what would become the whistleblower who first took the story public.
View the complete October 27 by Lawrence Lewis from Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.