Recent Events Involving Ukraine Have Created an Interesting Political Rorschach Test.
For those who have not read the transcript of President Trump’s July 25th phone conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky, or the highly publicized “whistleblower” complaint about this conversation, I would encourage you to read both. These public documents, taken together, make for an interesting political Rorschach test that have inspired wide-ranging partisan interpretations. For example, Democrats have accused the President of acting like a mob boss who commits treason by asking the Ukrainian President to interfere in America’s upcoming presidential election. If such accusations were true, Democrats might be justified in raising the specter of impeachment against Mr. Trump. But as with most things progressive Democrats complain about these days, they are simply examples of projection. In other words, Democrats employ the noble lie about Trump’s corruption, or that of Republicans in general, to distract us from their own malfeasance. The recent accusations about the President concerning Ukraine are no different, and here is why.
Democrats Are Saying that President Trump Has Violated Campaign Finance Law.
Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has alleged President Trump committed a campaign finance violation during his July 25th phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Mr. Schiff claims that Mr. Trump established a quid pro quo with Zelensky by demanding an investigation into corruption allegations involving Joe Biden in exchange for American military aid. Schiff has alleged Trump was seeking Ukraine’s help in order to undermine Joe Biden’s bid for Presidency, activities that would violate federal campaign financial laws.
President Trump Has Defended His Call with Zelensky as Fighting Corruption.
But Mr. Trump’s specific concern in Ukraine related to a conflict of interest Joe Biden had with his son Hunter’s lucrative seat on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings. In 2016, former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin had been investigating Burisma for money laundering and other corrupt activities. Shokin became a political target of the Obama Administration that same year for what they claimed was his obstruction of corruption investigations involving Shokin’s political allies. Joe Biden, in his role as White House envoy to Ukraine, threatened to cancel $1 billion in American loan guarantees if then Ukrainian President Poroshenko did not remove Shokin as prosecutor. Shokin was fired almost immediately by Poroshenko, and his investigation into Burisma was turned over to Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NACB). The NACB chose to shut-down the Burisma investigation, thereby preserving Hunter Biden’s financial interests which, according to journalist Peter Schweizer, eventually totaled about $3 million. There was no clear evidence uncovered at the time that Joe Biden had violated any law, but he clearly had a conflict of interest concerning his son Hunter and his involvement with Burisma. Therefore President Trump requested that newly elected President Zelensky work with U.S. Attorney General Barr to determine whether further investigation was warranted.
If Trump Demanded a Quid Pro Quo – Don’t Tell That to the Ukrainians.
President Zelensky and President Trump met at the United Nations last month to hold a joint press conference to discuss the July 25th phone call. Mr. Zelensky was asked whether he felt pressured by Mr. Trump to restart the investigation into Joe Biden. According to the New York Times, Zelensky stated that he had a good call with Trump, one he described as “normal” and that “nobody pushed me” to conduct any such investigation. In other words, no quid pro quo.
Now Democrats Have Accused the President of a Cover-Up Concerning Ukraine.
Democrats have also accused President Trump of a cover up because he moved the official transcript of his July 25th call with President Zelensky to a highly secure “code-word” computer system, one that former Obama administration officials said would be a highly unusual storage location for such content. Democrats theorized that Mr. Trump was trying to hide the transcript on this secure server, but such speculation jumped ahead of reality. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump Administration established a new practice in 2017 of migrating transcripts of phone conversations with world leaders to the code-word system because other similar transcripts had been leaked that same year to the press. If anything, Trump’s policy of migrating transcripts has more to do with protecting information from individuals in the White House who are working against his interests, and not a cover-up.
Democrats Have Employed a Double Standard in Their Quest for Impeachment.
Democrats have argued that the July 25th transcript of the Trump-Zelensky phone call amounts to our President requesting a foreign government’s assistance in investigating his presidential opponent, something they consider impeachable. Former President Gerald Ford once noted that an impeachable offense “…is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be…” Under this very broad standard, the Democrats might have a case. The only problem is Democrats that have a double-standard.
For example, in January 2016, Democratic National Committee (DNC) operative Alexandra Chalupa used Ukrainian Parliament Member Serhiy Leshchenko as a source of information used to discredit Paul Manafort who was about to become Trump’s Campaign Chairman. According to The Hill, a Ukrainian court ruled in December 2018 that Leshchenko illegally meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election “by leaking financial documents that smeared then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.” These leaks led Trump to fire Manafort in August 2016, giving his campaign a black eye at a politically inopportune time.
Similarly, Congressman Schiff showed how receptive he could be to receiving dirt on President Trump from foreign sources when in 2018 he was punked by two Russian comedians who posed as Ukrainian government officials. To hear Mr. Schiff’s expressed interest in such information, [click here].
Democrats Are Not Above Demanding a Quid Pro Quo for American Aid.
John Solomon of The Hill reported just last month the case of a Democrat threatening to withhold U.S. foreign aid from Ukraine. Solomon noted that Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy traveled to Ukraine to tell President Zelensky that if he cooperated with any Trump Administration on an investigation into Joe Biden’s activities that it would jeopardize Democratic support for aid to his country. In effect, Senator Murphy was obstructing what could have been a legitimate investigation by Attorney General Barr into what we know to be Biden’s conflict of interest in Ukraine. Of course, we heard nothing about this from Congressman Schiff or Speaker Pelosi, as it was not to their political advantage.
The Democratic Strategy in 2020… It’s All About Distraction… Distraction… Distraction.
Given their recent track record of falsely accusing the President of Russian collusion, you would think Democrats would have been more cautious with their new accusations against Mr. Trump. Instead, since the Democrats’ political base is adamant about impeaching the President, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi jumped the gun and announced that an impeachment inquiry would proceed even before the Trump-Zelensky transcript was released to the public. Further, Speaker Pelosi has yet to call for a floor vote on impeachment, thereby denying President Trump his due process rights.
None of this makes any sense, but these are progressive Democrats. They are not interested in solving your problem. That’s because they think you, the deplorable average citizen who disagrees with them, are the problem. And they cannot run on their record because their only accomplishment during the past two years has been leading the American people in circles by pushing the Russian collusion narrative.
Since Democrats cannot run on a record, they have decided to roll the dice and bet that their impeachment inquiry will drag down public support for President Trump. Good Luck. Although public opinion is split on impeachment, Trump’s base has been emboldened and Republicans are solidly behind the President. Therefore, the Democrats’ trumped-up charges (no pun intended) against this President will never get past the Senate in a trial. Democrats will continue to tell us more about Mr. Trump’s crimes, his violations of the Constitution, and how his actions in Ukraine have placed our national security in jeopardy. But when this deplorable hears these allegations, it just comes across as just more lies, damned lies, and statistics from progressive Democrats.
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Eric A. Beck
Editor-In-Chief
Free Nation Media LLC
Greenville, South Carolina
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