Thread by @bansisharma

Impeachment Case: A Tower of Verbal Tricks

a) Giuliani is extraofficial
b) Quid pro quo is illegal
c) Burisma is synonymous with Biden
d) Anticorruption investigation into Burisma is election interference
e) Trump making foreign policy is illegal

These are all false narratives.

Let us look at these one by one:
a) President can use anyone as an emissary, and when he does, it is official. Of course what the emissary does is subject to legitimate inquiry, but the fact that the emissary isn't on DoJ's payroll is completely beside the point.

b) Quid pro quo is never illegal by itself. All foreign policy is based on quid pro quo, always and forever. Once again, it is legitimate to question whether the quid and pro involved are in the national interest, but the mere existence of a quid pro quo is of no consequence.

c) Burisma is not synonymous with Biden. And if an anticorruption probe into Burisma reflects badly on Biden, whose fault is that? Not Donald Trump's. And if it does not reflect negatively on Biden, then why is Burisma being conflated with Biden?

d) By what stretch of imagination is an anticorruption investigation into Burisma election interference? Again ask yourself: How could an investigation of a Ukrainian company have a bearing on a U.S. election, unless a U.S. candidate is guilty of some malfeasance?

e) Finally, while they will not say outright that President cannot make foreign policy, they insinuate that the President did something hurtful to the nation by relying on his own judgment instead of deferring to the State Dept minions otherwise known as 'career diplomats.'

So there you have it. The entirety of the impeachment case in the media so far is a tower of semantic obfuscations.

It is of course possible the President is guilty of something sinister that will be substantiated during the public hearings starting next week.

I remain open to the possibility of impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors. Let the evidence lead where it may, but based on the sorry state of media track record of past three years, I am highly skeptical as of today. Let us hear the evidence for ourselves next week.

The End