The Democrats are attempting to claim that when President Trump asked for a “favor” from President Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate into the corruption surrounding the Biden affair in Ukraine he was attempting a “quid pro quo” (Latin: literally “this for that”) and that the “that” was “an investigation into a political rival” Joe Biden. They claim that this request was “improper” because it would benefit President Trump in the coming 2020 election. Thus, according to their logic the President was “profiting personally” from a “favor”. For them, this favor was a form of bribery, a claim upon which rests their impeachment argument.
But they err grievously.
The Dems are attempting to establish what the President thought or what his inner motives were, by what he said during a long, involved conversation. That is not easy to prove. Perhaps it is impossible to prove, nor is it justified.
But let us assume the President did want to get Zelensky to investigate the Biden affair. (Joe Biden as VP and “point man” for Obama on Ukraine, has admitted (he publicly bragged) that he held up a billion dollar US grant to Ukraine until the Ukrainian officials fired the investigator who was closing in on Burisma Holdings, a company which had just hired the VPs son, Hunter into a very lucrative post.) The clarification of the troublesome Biden affair, and investigation into other evidences of Ukraine corruption as well its alleged meddling in the 2016 US elections (claimed as false by some) were both valid inquiries. Any competent executive should have made such a request prior to giving over a $300 million dollar grant and other goodies. President Trump had a perfect right to demand a clarification of these corruption charges prior to releasing US taxpayer’s money. But in fact, he did not even do that! He asked for a “favor”, a request with no expectation of return gift or payment in kind. The favor was not honored, no investigations resulted, and the US money was not held back.
Ignoring these facts, let us go on to the crux of the matter.
If the President had said—“Look Zelensky, if you put $ 1 million in my Swiss bank account I’ll sign over the military funds to you”. That would have been a “quid pro quo”. The President would have personally benefitted by using the leverage of his office. That would have been bribery and corruption. He did not do that. (However, all facts seem to conform that Joe Biden did just that!)
But based on what we know, what the President did was all within his just purview as the Commander in Chief and the CEO of the USA.
When he asked for a political favor, he was asking as the President of the USA, as the only single person elected by the nation, by the @ 63 million voters who put him into office. His political goals—his desire for investigation of corruption in Ukraine and of an opposing domestic political party —do not advance him personally. They advance his nation, his party, his foreign policy goals, which are those of his supporters as a whole. He is our elected representative who holds the imprimatur from the people voting freely in a valid election. He won a landslide election in the Electoral College and 33 of the 50 states. He was asking for a favor for all those people who supported him and who would want him treated fairly in the last election, and in the coming one. This was not a “personal” benefit.
When the President is in office and acting in an official capacity, we can not ascribe to the President “a personal benefit” to his actions when he is formally acting as chief executive. In those times, he represents the nation as a whole and those who elected him. When he is out of office such behavior would be a personal one. But as President he represents us all.
For those Trump-resistors who persist in questioning the legitimacy of our election in 2916 and tearing the nation apart and weakening the very foundations of our election system let me urge them that, they like the rest of us, are bound to wait for our quadrennial elections and chose another chief executive more to their liking. Don’t destroy the system!
The Founders were clear. They were well aware that an unruly mob of diverse elected officials —like the House of Representatives—could never effectively or safely lead a nation on their own. They wisely instituted a powerful executive branch, and gave that individual leader great powers. But they also made sure that this leader must return to the people every four years to reestablishing his/her validity to lead. The resistors have ignored this basic component of our political compact. Seeing little or no passage to victory in 2020, the have rather decided on destruction.
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