Letters: Trump committed no crime; President should resign or be removed from office
Trump committed no crime
President Donald J. Trump will go down in history as one of our greatest and most transparent presidents of all time!
That said, I’d like to comment on Sunday’s letter to the editor, ”‘Urge Sen. Toomey to vote yea.”
The writer’s premise that the Democrat-run impeachment hearings produced “irrefutable evidence” of Trump crimes is absurd. Hearing witnesses, all biased against Trump, failed to produce any first hand evidence or name an impeachable offense. I’d also say that Republicans successfully rebutted every charge leveled against Trump.
However, despite any real evidence, Democrats persist on moving forward with two articles of impeachment – Obstruction of Congress and Abuse of Power.
I’ll comment on the obstruction charge by asking a question. Under this Democrat standard, should President Obama have been impeached for withholding evidence from Congress related to “Operation Fast and Furious”? Remember that this action was linked to the death of a border agent named Brian Terry.
With respect to the Abuse of Power charge, consider that, despite the hearings, there exists only one fact-based piece of evidence — the call transcript. I read the transcript and here are the facts as I see them. Trump never threatened to withhold any U.S. aid. Aid appropriated by Congress was released to Ukraine. Ukraine President Zelensky never initiated investigations. Zelensky denied feeling pressured during the call. In other words, there’s no crime.
But don’t take my word. Before running off half-cocked, read the transcript. Then ask yourself: What crime was committed?
President should resign or be removed from office
When Mr. Trump asked a foreign government to interfere in the next election by investigating his chief political rival, Joe Biden and his son, he abused the power of his office. This is not the first time he has asked a foreign power to interfere in our election process. He also asked Russia during the 2016 campaign to find Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. After which the Russians promptly hacked into the Democratic Party servers and released private emails damaging to Hillary through their surrogate WikiLeaks. Most recently and defiantly, he asked China to investigate the Bidens.
Asking a foreign government for help in elections isn’t normal or acceptable behavior for a president. Foreign interference in our elections perverts the election process. Interference by foreign entities is against the law and when done in conjunction with the president it is a blatant abuse of power.
The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that there was a quid pro quo, but even if there wasn’t, asking a foreign government to interfere in our election process is an abuse of power. An honorable man would realize he’s been caught and resign. A less than honorable man should be tried in a fair and serious Senate trial and removed from office. Given current politics, neither of these things will happen. The inevitable result is that Trump and his successors, Democrat and Republican, will feel free to ask foreign governments to interfere in our elections perverting election results and threatening our Republic.