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Why Are Democrats Shrinking From the Impeachment Fight?
At the outset, Republicans created an impossible standard for themselves. Taking their cues from President Donald Trump, they chose to defend the idea that the Trump-Ukraine call was "perfect" and that there was "no quid pro quo," when the record simply wouldn’t support it. This was obvious enough about the call from the very beginning, and it became clear about the pressure campaign on the Ukrainians by the time the opening statement of acting Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor’s deposition was released. The contention that the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was the Platonic ideal of a communication with a foreign leader opened the way for Democrats to make a big deal of witnesses alarmed or unsettled by the conversation. Thus, the brief star turn for Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman to come and tell the committee that the call was "inappropriate." And the newsworthy testimony from Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, that the call was "unusual," and from former National Security Council aide Tim Morrison, putting it even more delicately, that "it is not what we recommend the president discuss." There really should be no debate about these characterizations of the call, except Republicans decided to try to have one. Republicans now emphasize that none of the witnesses so far had direct knowledge of Trump’s directives on Ukraine and that even Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, said the president formally denied a quid pro quo to him in a phone conversation (albeit late in the game and at the same time Trump said he wanted Zelensky "to do the right thing"). Yeah, unfortunate, that, right Dems and Never-Trumping assholes? Allahpundit and MSNBC wept. CNN...spasmed This might be a defense that is useful only so long as no first-hand witnesses testify. But it gets to a weakness in the Democrats’ argument that will probably become even more prominent when the impeachment case, as it almost surely will, makes it to the Senate for a trial (and an acquittal). Posted by: Besoeker 2019-11-29 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=556689 |