You have to hand it to Dirty Don. In one week he has managed to piss off just about everyone around him, even Pat Robertson, one of his most ardent supporters. This is the "Mandate of Heaven" we are talking about here! Of course, it is not the scandal swirling around his call to the Ukraine president that bothers Rev. Pat. It is the fact that his dear president is siding with Erdogan in Syria and has looked the other way in regard to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. You can't be sleeping with those Muslim infidels if you want God on your side.
However, it is his gaslighting on the Ukraine issue that has most people appalled. Trump seems to believe it is his prerogative to investigate anyone he pleases and to ask countries for help even if said person is a political opponent challenging him in next year's election. What seemed like a "perfect call," is looking anything but perfect now that more whistleblowers with first hand information have come forward. He apparently had quite a few people around him when he tried to press the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden, most of whom weren't comfortable with what the president was implying. So, the White House sought to do damage control, which only made the matter worse once the news leaked about the call.
Trump has tried to pin the blame on his Vice-President, his Attorney General and now his Energy Secretary, making it sound like he was forced to make a call he didn't want to make, although he has readily admitted to the call and continues to defend himself in tweets. Not only that but Trump took it a step further by implying that China should investigate the Bidens as well. His supporters dismiss the latter as a joke but it didn't sound like he was joking.
Lindsey Graham was all set to take up his Commander-in-Chief in an investigation of the Bidens when all the sudden Trump got it in his head to pull out of Syria. This sent the poor South Carolina senator into a tailspin. If there is anything that gets Lindsey's goat it is letting up on the war on ISIS. It's not like the American military contingent is that significant, but to this point it has been the only thing stopping Turkish President Erdogan from going into Northern Syria and wiping out the Kurdish semi-autonomous state that arose during the civil war in the country. Erdogan believes the Kurds are harboring the notorious PKK, which he regards as a threat worse than ISIS.
Just about everyone advised Trump against this decision, even Russia, but Trump went ahead and did it anyway as a favor to his pal Tayyip. In part, it is because Trump had sided with Saudi Arabia in the Khashoggi investigation, which had upset Erdogan, who wanted to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. So, this is kind of a favor to ease relationships with Turkey, although he tried to not make it sound like one.
The danger in the House impeachment inquiry is that there are now so many directions it could go. Trump has made a number of impeachable offenses in the past week that could send the Democratic investigation efforts off the rails. It is important to stay focused on Ukraine, where we have a demonstrable abuse of executive power that goes deep into the White House. Not just Trump, but at least four top WH officials, including the Vice-President and Secretary of State, are potentially incriminated in that "perfect call."
Trump brought his "pay to play" style of business to the White House from day one. Saudis took up residence in his newly opened Washington hotel during the inauguration. Saudi and Emirate leaders have paid heavily into Ivanka's pet projects. China has given Ivanka all sorts of clothing licenses in its country. All to get Trump's ear. In an effort to deflect our attention away from these highly public malfeasances, he has tried to turn our attention to Joe Biden, hoping to discredit his main rival in the process. It's a Machiavellian strategy that is so bald-faced that only his most dimwitted supporters don't see through it.
Sure, one can question how Hunter Biden got such a cushy job on an Ukrainian energy holding company, but Trump is openly using his children to secure deals with foreign countries that further his personal business interests. People question this also, but no one brought up a formal investigation into the matter. Certainly, no one asked foreign countries to investigate the Trumps for his or her political gain.
Trump may honestly believe there is nothing wrong in what he did, but that doesn't make it any less a crime. He has advisers who should have stepped in and cut off that call. At the very least, they should have advised Trump to stay quiet afterward, not shout to the four winds that it is perfectly within his executive privilege to make such requests. At this point, you don't even need the whistleblowers' testimonies. It is all right out in the open for everyone to see and hear.
This should send alarm bells off within the entire Republican party but so far only a handful of Republicans have come forward to challenge the President, most notably Mitt Romney. They all know that what Trump did is wrong but they are too afraid of an electoral backlash in the primaries next year to go against the President. Romney has the luxury of not being up for re-election until 2022, at which time he might entertain another run for President himself.
Anyway, not much "great and unmatched wisdom" being displayed here. This is about as dull-headed and witless as a president can be. He is forcing his fellow Republicans to make all sorts of ludicrous excuses for him that will come back to haunt them. After all, these are the same guys who pushed for Bill Clinton's impeachment on much less shaky ground.
Comments
Post a Comment