On Sept. 24, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi initiated a formal impeachment inquiry into sitting President Donald Trump, after a whistleblower complaint and reconstructed phone call transcript with new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested he was trying to induce foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
What disappointing déjà-vu! How appalling that Trump failed to learn from previous mistakes after encouraging Russian interference in the 2016 election, a similar situation detailed in the Robert Mueller report.
Yet, the subsequent Ukrainian case is much more condemnatory, as it not only undermines American national security for perhaps the billionth time, but also shows an actual initiation on Trump’s part to use his presidential powers for personal and political gain.
Trump supposedly conveyed that U.S. military aid towards Ukraine would rely on the Zelensky’s ability to investigate 2020 Democratic frontrunner and former vice president, Joe Biden, as well as his son Hunter Biden, according to the “deeply concerned” anonymous whistleblower, who The New York Times claims is a CIA officer that worked at the White House.
During the July 25 phone call, of which a nonverbatim transcript was released by the White House on Sept. 25, Trump allegedly introduced “the idea of reciprocity,” according to The New York Times, by emphasizing that the United States spends “a lot of effort and a lot of time” in Ukraine.
This allusion to U.S. Pentagon and State Department funds seems suspicious considering that just days before this conversation occurred, Trump suddenly withheld $391 million worth of aid that Congress appropriated to help Ukraine fight Russian aggression.
As there were no conditions for release, it is ironic that such vital aid was delayed until Sept. 11.
After setting such an ominous tone, Trump asked Zelensky to enlist the help of new fixer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr not only to pursue an investigation into Ukraine’s supposed involvement in the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak, but to find information on Biden corruption.
Trump, egged on by Giuliani, believes Joe Biden’s diplomacy and pressure to dismiss Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin in March 2016 was motivated by his desire to protect Hunter Biden from prosecution. After all, Shokin began a probe into Burisma Holdings Ltd., the Ukrainian private gas company that younger Biden served on as a board member. Yet, they forgot the part where the current prosecutor found no evidence of wrongdoing, Bloomberg reports. Not to mention that everyone in former president Barack Obama’s administration believed Shokin was corrupt in the first place.
Since “Trumpeachment” proceedings began, all 19 Democratic candidates still running for president in 2020 offered their full support for the inquiry, according to The New York Times, but they have also tried to prevent Trump drama from overshadowing their campaigns. While the inquiry may energize Trump’s fanbase so close to election season, allowing such injustices to continue and failing to hold elected officials accountable is not only shameful, but further weakens the political system the founding fathers courageously built. Therefore, the impeachment investigation is a necessary hazard to take on.
