It is impossible to argue the facts of what President Trump did to US. (1) His own transcript, public declarations, and mountains of evidence confirm that he withheld aid to Ukraine & asked for them to announce an investigation into his political opponents 1/x
(2) President Trump ordered that no one in his power could testify, including: Mulvaney, Pence, Barr, Pompeo, Bolton, Perry, Rudy, himself. And executive branch has refused to turn over any documents, for anything. This is complete obstruction of justice 2/x
Anyone voting to acquit Trump of these 2 charges is declaring they think it is OK for a president to extort foreign gov'ts, undermine our elections, completely obstruct justice. First, it is impossible to argue facts these events occurred. Second, impeachment is political ... 3/x
It does not matter if these charges are crimes (they are), because you do not need to commit a crime to be impeached. Thus, acquittal affirms not just legal right to do these things, but Republican support for these crimes against US to happen again & again ... 4/x
Obvious why we don't want the abuse of power: we have no rule-of-law if the president can just sell our assets for personal gain, and it undermines our security & power around the world. Obstruction of justice is also really bad: if you let it happen, you let all crime happen 5/x
If is acceptable to destroy evidence, refuse to testify or hand-over evidence, than any can get away with any crime. We must make an example that obstruction of justice is not tolerated. 6/7
President Trump is not on trial: The Republican Party is on trial. Do they support rule-of-law? Do they support a republic? A vote for acquittal is a vote for an autocracy, it functionally ends the republic. This is how democracies die. Full Stop. 7/7
