It appears that the Trump's defense will not deny that he asked Ukraine to announce that they were investigating one of his political rivals. Given that, I'd be interested to hear Republican Senators say what they think about the following scenarios.
Imagine if in 2023, President Biden had his personal lawyer, Ed Rendell, travel to India to look into what appear to be the corrupt business practices of Donald Trump Jr, the person who looks likely to be the GOP nominee in 2024. Lindsey G is cool w/ that? vox.com/world/2018/2/2…
Or let's say Pres Warren has her personal lawyer, Hillary Clinton, go to Azerbaijan & Iran in 2023 to ask those governments to investigate credible reports that the Trump family helped launder money for the IRGC. Susan Collins thinks that's A-OK, right? newyorker.com/magazine/2017/…
Or let's say President Sanders in 2024 gets his personal lawyer, Eric Holder, to have the Chinese gov't announce they are investigating GOP nominee Ivanka T's fishy patents. Mitch just nods and says "cool, cool." citizensforethics.org/ivanka-trump-t…
All of the hypothetical actions I've described above would be totally unethical and improper, and should touch off a Congressional inquiry and possible impeachment proceedings. They are also consistent with actions that Trump's defense openly admits he engaged in.
And even worse, those hypothetical actions by Dem presidents would be wrong even though there is significant evidence of the Trump family's corrupt dealings...whereas there is not a shred of evidence that attests to Joe Biden's corruption.
I'm not saying that future Democratic Presidents should do the things I described, and given what I know about their past records, I doubt any of them would even consider doing those things. The GOP knows this. They bank on it. IOKIYAR rules everything around us.
This is why this impeachment trial matters. Because if this President is not held accountable for these clear abuses of power, then why should any President NOT do similar things (or worse) to try to cynically game their re-election? You'd be a fool not to, right?
The only thing that stops a future President from engaging in these sorts of gross abuses of power is...stopping *this* President from getting away with abusing his power in this way. That's it. That's the only way to stop this from becoming the new, totally indefensible normal.
The cherry on top of this whole affair is that one of the main actors in it, Mick Mulvaney, proudly announced in 2016 that, as a principled strict constructionist, he'd look forward to holding President Trump accountable. How's that going Mick?
