Sunday, September 29, 2019

How Donald Trump Triggered an Unprecedented Impeachment Fight

https://time.com/5686822/trump-biden-ukraine-call-favor/

The accusation Trump faces is grave. The President allegedly pressured Zelensky to reopen investigations into previously dismissed and widely debunked accusations involving Joe Biden, the former Vice President. Before making the call, Trump took extraordinary steps to withhold aid approved for Ukraine by majorities of both parties in Congress. These and other actions by Trump so alarmed an intelligence-community official detailed to the White House that the official filed a whistle-blower complaint. By law, the complaint would be forwarded to Congress. The Administration blocked it.
The implications go beyond the fate of a presidency to the heart of our democracy. Trump stands accused of using America’s vast wealth and the presidency’s unmatched sway to hold onto power for himself. In this era of hyperpartisan politics, the impeachment process will test the mechanisms of accountability built into our system of government by the Founders, who anticipated many things–but could not have envisioned Trump.
The President, for his part, responded to the House’s action with characteristic fury, denying wrongdoing and accusing his critics of “presidential harassment.” Trump was in New York City for the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly when the dam broke. Speaking to reporters on his way to a meeting with the President of Iraq, he said, “Listen, it’s just a continuation of the witch hunt.” In shifting statements as the Ukraine story unfolded, Trump has offered different rationales for the withheld aid but insisted there was no quid pro quo. His allies have sought to reframe the scandal as a “deep state” plot by hysterical Trump antagonists, and to deflect attention from the allegations of corruption by the Bidens, which numerous independent observers have determined to be unfounded, the Ukrainian government has denied and Biden decries as a smear.

8 comments:

  1. Debunked accusations? Biden is on video bragging about getting the prosecutor fired and withholding loan guarantees as a threat to make sure he gets fired. Why are journalists so blatantly dishonest?

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  2. “How Donald Trump...” May I change the subject? Torah thought on וילך
    I compare the concluding admonition in בחקתי with וילך. My theory.
    In בחקתי it was shortly after the sin of the golden calf. God accepted Moses’ prayers and gave Moses the 10 Commandments. God decreed Yom Kippur and the building of the Mishkan. We have the Book of Leviticus. I love the call for repentance immediately after the 49 dreadful curses:
    “and they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in that they trespassed against Me במעלם אשר מעלו בי, yea, were hostile to Me. When I, in turn, have been hostile to them and have removed them into the land of their enemies, then at last shall their obdurate [others uncircumcised; lit. blocked.] heart humble itself, and they shall atone for their iniquity. Then will I remember וזכרתי My covenant with Jacob; I will remember אזכר also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham; and I will remember אזכר the land. For the land shall be forsaken of them, makingup for its sabbath years by being desolate of them, while they atone for their iniquity; for the abundant reason that they rejected My rules and spurned My laws. Yet, even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or spurn them so as to destroy them, annulling להפר My covenant with them: for I the Lord am their God. I will remember וזכרתי in their favor the covenant with the ancients ברית ראשונים, whom I freed from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God: I, the Lord.” (Leviticus 26:40-45).
    What do we see in ולך? “He said to them: I am now one hundred and twenty years old, I can no longer be active [lit. come and go.]. Moreover, the Lord has said to me, You shall not go across yonder Jordan.” (Deuteronomy 31:2). God tells Moses: “and the many evils and troubles befall them—then this poem השירה הזאת shall confront them as a witness, since it will never be lost from the mouth of their offspring. For I know what plans they are devising את יצרו אשר הוא עשה even now, before I bring them into the land that I promised on oath אשר נשבעתי.” (Deuteronomy 31:21).
    The difference is that inבחקתי the Jews had Moses as their leader. In the Midrash if Moses would’ve entered Israel and lead the people there would never be the destruction of the Holy Temple and Exile which twice happened.
    Hertz Chumash p.890: “as a witness. For God. Whenever the people murmur and ask “Why has all this evil befallen us?” it will vindicate the retributive justice of God. for it shall not be forgotten . A Divine Assurance that, bhe Israel’s misfortunes what they may, Israel will never altogether forget its destiny, and cease to be ‘the people of the book’,”
    Rosh Hashana is called יום הזכרון
    פסיקתא זוטרתא (לקח טוב) בראשית פרשת וירא פרק כב
    אמר ר' כרוספדאי א"ר יוחנן שלשה ספרים נפתחים בר"ה, אחד של צדיקים גמורים ואחד של רשעים גמורים, ואחד של בינונים, צדיקים גמורים נכתבין ונחתמין לאלתר לחיים, של רשעים גמורים נכתבין ונחתמין לאלתר לגיהנם, בינונים תלויים ועומדים מראש השנה ועד יוה"כ, זכו נכתבין לחיים, לא זכו נכתבין למיתה, לפיכך אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא אמרו לפני בר"ה מלכיות זכרונות ושופרות, מלכיות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם, זכרונות כדי שתעלה זכרונכם לפני לטובה, ובמה בשופר
    Hertz Chumash p. 546 “confess. God desireth not the death of the sinner; and, therefore, every threat of punishment for disobedience is followed by a promise of mercy, if there is repentance and amendment. Divine discipline is for moral ends; and in truth the Exile proved a purifying furnance unto Israel.”
    See http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/24516 “Politicians – a time to confess”

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  3. The real problem is that we wouldn't be having this impeachment if the Democrats hadn't gone after the President on the Russian collusion jazz.

    They couldn't make that stick. But it primed the public to think in terms of foreign government interference.

    Then this Ukrainian call fell into the lap of the Democrats. I think it is an impeachable offense what the President did. If he is totally innocent of pressuring the Ukrainians, which is quite possible, or if he is technically innocent of breaking any law even if he did pressure them, which is a possibility, still he gave the impression of using U.S. aid as leverage to damage a political rival through a foreign power. A president has to be above that kind of behavior, especially a President like Donald Trump whose whole Presidency is built on appearances.

    Live by the TV, die by the TV.

    But the President's behavior is not the problem, as I said above. The problem is the Democrats. They have operned the door to madness. All the Party holding the U.S. House has to do in the future is make up false allegations against a sitting President, and then patiently wait till the President does something that resembles those allegations. Then they can impeach.

    The job of President will become a joke. The Congress will be a joke. Nobody wins if President Trump is forcibly removed from office. Nobody wins if he's impeached. I believe that the President will be impeached but will stay in office. Vice President Biden will withdraw from the race. And President Trump will face a socialist in the general election.

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  4. Vice President Joe Biden will not be able to get out of this one. He will be hammered in the next debate. His election bid is over.

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  5. it had nothing to do with sticking
    Mueller said DOJ rules say sitting president could not be indicted

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  6. The fact that a sitting President can't be indicted doesn't mean every sitting President under investigation is thus presumed to be guilty.

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  7. The Ukrainians didn't even know their aid was being held up for a whole month. So where's the quo in the quid pro quo,?
    2. Since when were the accusations against Biden debunked? Unless you mean the corrupt former prosecutor?
    Biden admitted it in the video.

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  8. does change anything

    the threat was clear

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