President Trump, not his campaign staffers or surrogates, requested that the Ukrainian government investigate the dealings of a political adversary’s son solely for personal political gain. Using the Oval Office to advance his personal electoral prospects may render Trump, to those not already dissuaded by the list of lies over the past three years, unelectable.
But Trump putting his personal interests over that of the people, however egregious, does not merit overriding the will of voters through impeachment.
There are a number of practical points against impeachment. Relitigating the integrity of our elections harms the health of the country at large. For the Left, impeachment proceedings so close to another election risks distracting from the Democratic front-runners and puts Trump on the defense. For the Right, forcing vulnerable Republican senators, those vital not just to Trump’s agenda but also to blocking the passage of a left-wing agenda, to vote to protect Trump could tip their seats blue.
But as a matter of principle, the current absence of definitive proof of that crucial quid pro quo means that the question of Trump’s political prospects should be left to the voters, not Congress, to decide.
Public support for impeachment may rise from its cratering minority of the post-Mueller era. If it does, the calculus of both political expedience and moral imperative would change. But as it stands, the only new information obtained from the released transcript between Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky is that the president is willing to work with foreign governments to undermine his domestic foe. That’s a gross malfeasance, but not a high crime or misdemeanor.
Critics may point to Trump mentioning aid to Ukraine earlier in the call as evidence of an implied quid pro quo. But absent any new revelation about the non-verbatim transcript, his aside reads more as an opportunity to brag in relation to Europe rather than an actual hint that he’d withhold further aid if Zelensky refused to assist him on the Biden matter. That’s a defense, technically, but a desperate one depicting Trump as crooked as the swamp he claimed he would drain.
So Trump didn’t threaten to use taxpayer money to manipulate a foreign government into investigating his domestic political adversary. That’s the best defense Republicans have going into 2020.
