Anemic Republicans think they’re staking out safe territory when they say that while President Trump may have been a little naughty in his dealing with Ukraine, he hasn’t done anything that merits impeachment.
It’s a weak position and Trump is right in calling it a trap.
Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas fell into it Sunday when he said in an interview that he believed Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “inappropriate” but not worthy of impeachment.
To believe there was anything inappropriate about the call is to believe that Democrats should get away with political murder. Trump wanted two things from Ukraine: An investigation into the country’s interference in the 2016 election and former Vice President Joe Biden.
I understand that we work under the assumption that Democrats are allowed to conduct all of the investigations they want for political reasons and Republicans are supposed to sit still with their wrists cuffed to their ankles but let’s stop assuming that for a moment.
To date, Trump has undergone four different investigations by Democrats: There was the Obama administration’s FBI spying on the Trump 2016 campaign. Then there was the Democrats’ demand for a special counsel, which resulted in Robert Mueller’s inquisition. Then there’s the neverending hunt for Trump’s personal tax returns. Now there are impeachment proceedings.
Every single one of those has been done for the political gain of Democrats and yet we’re now talking about unseating the president of the United States because he dared to ask for his own investigations.
Unlike the Mueller investigation, the ones Trump wants are likely to turn something up.
Ukraine did insert itself in the 2016 election to hurt Trump’s campaign. We should find out exactly how that happened. And there are certainly questions still unanswered about Biden and his son’s lucrative role in a shady Ukrainian energy company.
Maybe the way Trump operated with Ukraine isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But Republicans who call it “inappropriate” are giving Democrats all they need to push ahead with their joke of impeachment and license to conduct yet more of their own harassing investigations.
Republicans such as Thornberry think they’ll get some credit from Democrats and the national media if they at least criticize the president. They won’t.
