The Democrats’ impeachment push against President Trump, over his dealings with the Ukrainian government, is one more trip down the “collusion” rabbit hole, and it will prove as pointless as the original.
This time, Democrats and their media cheerleaders really think they have nailed Trump. They have reprised the hysterical tone of the Mueller era, with breathless reports about a whistleblower complaint concerning the president allegedly pressuring Ukraine’s president to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter. Finally, anti-Trumpers believe, the president has handed them the silver bullet with which they will vanquish the demon of 2016.
But liberals shouldn’t be surprised that the story doesn’t appear to have fueled a public outcry for impeachment. Nor should it. This seems similar to the many misleading and ultimately insubstantial reports about “collusion” with Russia, the Stormy Daniels kerfuffle or any of the half-baked scandals du jour that have popped up with regularity since his inauguration.
The Ukraine-Biden affair is just one more instance of Democrats trying to sell us on the false notion that Trump’s questionable judgment and style of governing are equivalent to the “high crimes and misdemeanors” that the Constitution requires for removing a president from office.
There’s no proof that either Biden or his son did anything illegal in Ukraine, even if there is the appearance of a conflict of interest. Having a family member of a high administration official, like Biden, who had direct dealings with the Ukrainian government on the board of a major energy company there showed bad judgment. The former vice president also successfully pressured Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who now claims to have been investigating Hunter Biden’s firm.
By the same token, for Trump to ask the Ukrainian president to investigate this also seems wrong, especially if it was accompanied by an implicit threat of withholding the military aid that country needs to defend itself against Russian aggression. Trump denies the charge.
But despite all the huffing and puffing by Trump’s critics, it’s not clear what, if any, laws Trump broke by asking about Biden’s business. Nor does the whistleblower statute cover a president’s dealings with a foreign nation.
The Constitution gives presidents virtual carte blanche to conduct US foreign policy. That’s something that frustrated critics of President Barack Obama’s secret dealings with Iran that led to a scandalously weak nuclear deal.
As much as the Democratic-controlled House has the right to conduct oversight over the executive branch, demanding the transcripts of private conversations with foreign leaders would make it impossible for any future president to do his job. And for an intelligence official or operative to treat Trump’s talks with Ukraine as a potential violation of law seems, at best, an overreach. Here, too, there are echoes of the “collusion” hoax, with a politicized US security establishment actively working to undermine a duly elected chief executive.
Few in the media cared about the younger Biden using his access and family name to profit in China and Ukraine, especially when compared to the current obsession with treating the Trump family’s dealings abroad as patently criminal. If Democrats want to hold impeachment hearings about Trump’s conversations, they will only shine a brighter light on Hunter Biden’s unseemly activities at the same time the former vice president was throwing his weight around in Kiev.
Yet you don’t have to approve of the activities of the Bidens or Trump’s brazen effort to have the Ukrainians dig up the dirt to understand that discussion is being driven by partisanship on both sides — not concern for the law.
If Republicans are dismissing the Ukraine charge, it’s understandable. House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and his media echo chamber have no credibility left after the way they flogged misleading news stories about Russia based on leaks that never panned out.
Schiff’s only goal is to find something that will justify impeachment, even if there are no valid legal grounds to do so. This gambit is more than likely to prove yet another dead end that only further discredits liberal efforts.
The only valid way to get rid of Trump is at the ballot box in November 2020. The more energy the Democrats spend on trying to delegitimize the results of the last election, the better Trump’s chances of securing another four years in the Oval Office.
Jonathan Tobin is editor in chief of JNS.org and a contributor to National Review. Twitter: @JonathanS_Tobin
