,
10 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
It is easy to lose sight of what's going on given how Trump has been flooding the zone with craziness for so long. Today's comments publicly inviting China to investigate Biden, a political rival, while US is in delicate trade negotiations ALONE is an impeachable abuse of power.
Today's conduct AGAIN asking a foreign power to investigate a rival and interfere with US elections constitutes an abuse of power. The smoking gun is right there. It doesn't require a whistleblower, or depositions, or subpoenas. You don't need more. Easy to lose sight of this.
Just because impeachment is a very high standard does not mean that there aren't also some easy cases of abuse of power.
Add to today's conduct of inviting foreign interference AGAIN, Trump's earlier conduct of threatening both the whistleblower and @RepAdamSchiff, raising accusations of treason, and suggesting violence against them and you have a very easy case for abuse of power. Paradigmatic.
This is why I favor a quick impeachment inquiry in the House. The conduct is getting worse, and it is affecting the election itself @slate nytimes.com/2019/10/03/us/…
This is why I favor a quick impeachment inquiry in the House. The conduct is getting worse, and it is affecting the election itself. Meant this link @slate: slate.com/news-and-polit… 
And during a quick impeachment inquiry the House does not need to formally limit things to Ukraine. It can use its powers related to impeachment to go after documents and other things related to Trump self-dealing, etc., as @ThePlumLineGS has argued washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
If Trump were being calculating, he could be trying to signal he did nothing wrong in Ukraine call by saying the same thing in public re China. It is a "nothing to hide" strategy. But doing it in the open doesn't mean it isn't an abuse of power. Brazenness is not absolution.
Democrats' pursuit of impeachment is not without risk. But Trump's conduct today shows the risks of NOT pursuing impeachment. The President's conduct in inviting foreign intervention in the 2020 elections is getting worse, not better. It deserves attention, condemnation.
And the condemnation of the conduct is necessary whether or not that helps or hurts Democrats electorally, and even if the Senate fails to convict. I want to get Senators on record whether a president inviting foreign intervention is acceptable behavior. I sure hope it isn't.
