As I’m sure you know, Representative LIDDLE Chris Pappas voted to impeach the President. Here is LIDDLE on twitter spinning his vote:
As you also may know, the impeachment was based on two articles: Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress. Again, here’s LIDDLE:
A couple of preliminary points. First, this is the first totally partisan impeachment in American history … the impeachments of Johnson, Nixon (who resigned before impeachment because there was bipartisan support) and Clinton were all bipartisan. Second, this is the first impeachment not based on the President breaking a law or laws … as we’ll discuss in a moment “Abuse of Power” and “Obstruction of Congress” do not involve the President breaking any laws. And, third, this is the only impeachment based totally on innuendo, insinuation and hearsay … not on facts.
So let’s start with “Abuse of Power.” The Democrats’ claim is that the President jeopardized America’s “national security” by withholding lethal military aid from the Ukraine in order to pressure Ukraine to “dig up dirt” on Joe Biden.
To begin with, what national security interest does the United States have in a border dispute between Russia and Ukraine? None that I know of. Adam Schiff in the Democrats’ closing arguments claimed that Ukraine, which is not part of Europe, was fighting to stop Putin from redrawing the map of Europe, which according Schiff is happening at this very moment. This is delusional or dishonest. Russia is not redrawing the map of Europe. Russia is not a conventional military threat to Europe. Russia is not a conventional military threat to the United States. The economy of the State of Texas is larger than Russia’s. And Russia’s per person GDP is not even $9,000.00 … Texas’ is $58,000.00.
What makes the “Abuse of Power” claim even more farcical is that President Trump approved the sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine in 2017 and the Javelins were provided in 2018 … both before the time in issue in the impeachment (2019) … AND President Obama refused to provide lethal military aid because he feared alienating Putin.
So now let’s move to the other part of the “Abuse of Power” claim … that there was a “quid pro quo” or “bribery” or that President Trump “pressured Ukraine” … or whatever the latest focus-group tested meme is … to “dig up dirt” on Joe Biden.
To begin with, it is in the interest of all Americans … not just President Trump … to know if a potential Democrat nominee for President was selling influence to a foreign government (in a nutshell, Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, despite being totally unqualified got a plush, high-paying position with a Ukraine company after Joe was made the point-person for Ukraine policy.)
Second, there was no evidence … NONE AT ALL … of a “quid pro quo” or “bribery” or even “pressure.” Nothing in the transcript of the call. President Zelensky said he did not feel pressured. No witness testified that President Trump or any of his advisors ever said that the aid was tied to an investigation of the Bidens. In fact, Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified that Trump specifically said he wanted no quid pro quo.
It was all insinuation, innuendo and hearsay. For example:
"6 people having 4 conversations in 1 sentence, & you tell me this is where you just got your clear understanding… I've seen church prayer chains that are easier to understand than this."@Jim_Jordan exposes Bill Taylor's lack of firsthand knowledge on Democrats' allegations. pic.twitter.com/Cprp1XvrTe
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) November 13, 2019
To reiterate, NONE of the Democrat witnesses could provide any first-hand evidence of “quid pro quo” or “bribery” or even pressure. To the contrary, they all testified that they were never involved in any such conversations. What the testimony did disclose is that between July 18th when aid was paused by the President and September 11th, when it was released, there were five interactions between President Zelensky and senior American officials … and the aid was never tied to investigations in any of those discussions.
So now let’s move on to “Obstruction of Congress.” This claim is that Trump “obstructed Congress” by not providing all the witnesses and documents the Democrat-controlled committees running impeachment demanded.
The obvious problem with this claim is that the Executive is not a subordinate branch of government to the Congress. It is a separate branch. What the Democrats are calling “Obstruction of Congress” is also known as the “Separation of Powers.”
https://twitter.com/RepRatcliffe/status/1207478173107142658
The practice has been, when the Executive resists a Congressional subpoena, for Congress to ask the third-branch, the judiciary, to resolve the impasse. That the Democrats chose not to do so, but to instead invented a make-believe “constitutional crime” … “Obstruction of Congress” … indicates that the Democrats believe that President Trump’s interpretation of the Separation of Powers is correct.
The icing on this farcical impeachment cake is that the Democrats … after their rush to impeach based on their claims that it was critical to remove President Trump from office immediately … have refused to send the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate until the Senate agrees to conduct the trial based on rules acceptable to House Speaker Pelosi. This sums it up pretty well:
Bottom line – if the House refuses to move to a trial, they’re dropping the case. It’s a MUCH bigger win for @realDonaldTrump than an acquittal because it’s an explicit admission they didn’t have the goods to even present the discussion in front of anyone other than themselves
— Josh Holmes (@HolmesJosh) December 19, 2019
But what has made it even more farcical is that one of the Democrats’ “legal experts” has said that the failure to move the Articles to the Senate means that the President has not been impeached:
In sum, first totally partisan impeachment in American history … based on made-up, make-believe “constitutional crimes”: “Abuse of Power” and “Obstruction of Congress” … and based totally on innuendo, insinuation and hearsay, not on facts.
LIDDLE Chris Pappas, if you hadn’t already earned it, you have unarguably earned the sobriquet LIDDLE by supporting this #ShamImpeachment.
