Make no mistake, this has been a long time coming. As a Politico article aptly noted yesterday, Democrats have been a party in search of the “right vehicle” to impeach Trump. Remember the Mueller investigation? Right, that was supposed to be the Big Bang for Democrats-the start of impeachment proceedings. Turns out that was a big dud despite all the media hysteria. But now they think they’ve found their vehicle. The political spin by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that the Ukraine allegations all of a sudden necessitated an impeachment inquiry is just pure garbage.
Let’s put some of the facts out here.
- For only the fourth time in our nation’s history, the House of Representatives has voted to begin an impeachment inquiry.
- According to Speaker Pelosi, the impeachment inquiry was necessitated by the White House’s efforts to block a whistleblower complaint purportedly relating to an effort by President Trump to coerce the Ukrainian President to investigate whether Joe Biden intervened to stop a criminal investigation into his son’s business dealings in Ukraine.
- The complaint was apparently reviewed by the inspector general of the office of the Director of National Intelligence, who testified last week that he was being blocked by the administration from releasing his report on the complaint to Congress.
- Pelosi concluded that blocking Congress from seeing these materials was a violation of law.
- In her speech announcing the inquiry, Pelosi stated that “the president has admitted to asking the president of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically. The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable facts of betrayal of his oath of office and betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.”. (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/24/20882453/impreachment-trump-nancy-pelosi-statement)
- Yesterday, President Trump ordered the release of a full unredacted transcript of his phone call with the Ukrainian president in which he allegedly asked him to investigate the Bidens. Last night, the White House indicated that it would release the whistleblower complaint and inspector general report.
So what, then, are the Democrats basing their call for an impeachment inquiry?
Despite Pelosi claiming as a certainty that Trump engaged in the alleged conduct, she has not yet seen a copy of the phone transcript, the whistleblower complaint, or the inspector general report. So it can’t be based in the facts. She hasn’t seen them.
So it must be based on the White House’s efforts to block the complaint and report from being released to Congress.
Really? Is that what should trigger an impeachment inquiry for only the fourth time in our nation’s history?
The facts are clear. Democrats have not based the opening of an impeachment inquiry on any facts. They haven’t yet seen the facts.
This is a political hatchet job to its core by a party in search of a way to nullify an election that they lost. They have found their “vehicle” to do so.
It is a disgrace to our nation, and I believe Americans will see that come voting time next year.
