Written By Michael Palomba
Since the day President Trump took office, Democrats have been adamant about impeaching him at any and all costs. Last Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) formally launched an impeachment inquiry.
What Democrats are referring to as the “Ukraine Scandal” was apparently the final straw that forced Pelosi’s hand on the matter of impeachment. But what is this alleged “scandal” they are referring to?
It began with a whistleblower complaint regarding President Trump’s conversation with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskya. While the official complaint has not been released yet, it has been determined that it was concerning Trump requesting that Ukraine look into Biden’s dealings there. Specifically, Joe Biden having a prosecutor—who may have been investigating his son—fired.
In response to this, President Trump released the full unredacted transcript of his call with the Ukranian President to show the public that there was no quid pro quo in the phone call. And, as expected, there was nothing particularly unusual (or illegal) in the call. No threats of withholding aid, not quid pro quo, nothing.
However, Democrats are still adamant that there was some sort of wrongdoing committed. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) even went as far as to say, “What [Trump] has admitted to is already impeachable regardless of future developments. What he has already admitted to is an impeachable offense.” So, according to Ocasio-Cortez, asking a foreign government to simply look into a possible incident of corruption is “an impeachable offense.” This is interesting considering that in 2018, several democrats wrote to the Ukrainian prosecutor for help investigating President Trump.
Hypocrisy aside, has the president committed an impeachable offense? Do Democrats have a leg to stand on regarding impeachment? Well, not really. The long-awaited Muller report turned out to be a flop, as have other attempts to impeach President Trump. American citizens are also largely opposed to impeachment, with only 37 percent in favor according to a Politico-Morning Consult poll taken this month. Republicans are also very unified on the issue and it is unlikely that will change. Two California Republicans, Brian Maryott and Carl DeMaio, have come out publicly against impeachment.
Overall, this push for impeachment is a political stunt that, as Maryott states, “[is] an attempt to distract Americans from the inefficient and broken House of Representatives under Democratic control.” Rep. Al Green (D-TX) has presented Articles of Impeachment on the House Floor three separate times, and it has failed to come close to attaining the simple majority of support needed.
The bigger issue here is that Democrats have set a very dangerous precedent, which is that if you don’t like the person who wins the election, you just try to impeach them. They have wasted taxpayer money on countless investigations and have refused to work with Republicans to get anything done since Trump took office. Hopefully, in 2020, Republicans and Democrats can put their differences aside and work together to Keep America Great.
