By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Both of Kentucky’s U.S. Senators weighed in on the impeachment inquiry involving President Donald Trump while in Frankfort Monday to speak to the Federalist Society.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, wouldn’t talk to reporters after his speech but did make a brief comment on impeachment during his remarks to the group. “People think of it as a judicial-type proceeding, but it’s a political decision.”
U.S. Senators Rand Paul, left, and Mitch McConnell were in Frankfort on Monday. (Kentucky Today file photos)
Senator Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, told reporters after his speech to the Federalist Society that one of the things they talked about was equal protection under the law, and referred to the telephone conversation the President had with the President of Ukraine.
“I think whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, everybody should be treated equally. If you look at it objectively, have Republicans or Democrats threatened aid in the past if they don’t get what they want? Sounds like that’s what Joe Biden did, sounds like what four Democratic Senators did, and some accuse the President of the same thing.”
“If both sides are being accused of essentially interfering with aid, making it depend on who investigates what, sounds like we should treat both sides the same. It doesn’t sound like the impeachment of President Trump is one thing, yet I haven’t heard one Democrat say what Joe Biden did was wrong, to threaten their aid particularly over something where he is son was making $50,000 per month.”
Regarding the two whistleblowers who have come forward, Paul noted only a few people are privy to the President’s conversations.
“It would be interesting to know if either one of the whistleblowers were legally allowed to, or did they get illegal dissemination of information? If the President can’t keep confidential some things and everybody is leaking it, that’s a real problem for our nation’s security as well.”
When asked by a reporter if it was wrong to ask Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, Paul replied, “Should aid be contingent on behavior? I would say yes. One of the things Ukraine has been accused of for a long time is corruption. So, should they investigate corruption, yeah. Whether asking about a specific individual is right or wrong, you can argue that maybe it wasn’t appropriate, but I don’t think there has been a real strong argument made that it was unlawful in any way.”
He added, “The guy that was paying Hunter Biden’s salary, the owner was an oligarch with billions of dollars that was being investigated about the origin of his money.”
Paul compared the oligarch system to the United States, saying there are a lot of differences, citing the founder of Wal-Mart as an example. “Sam Walton started out with a couple of stores and became a billionaire over the years selling stuff. Oligarchs became billionaires overnight, often by being handed a state monopoly which became a private monopoly. I think we should find out who was paying Hunter Biden $50,000 a month and why, and whether there was any corruption involved in that.”
Ron Paul is a voice of reason. Mitch is right that this is political. Even though this sounds like a grand jury inquest, there is always a judge present to answer questions. There is no judge guiding the present House procedures. As the President has the power to negotiate treaties, everything he does before placing the treaty before the Senate is really executive privilege and the art of the deal. Presidents have been allowed to use informal, non government people to negotiate. In FDR’s day this was FDR’s relatives the Astors on his mother’s side. Vincent Astor wrote a book on his findings for FDR. James Monroe dealt with Napoleon as he was the only American with Joint Citizenship. This was for writing the 1795 Constitution of France, simplified as the Rights and Duties of man and citizens. As Jefferson’s law student, he copied Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette’s original 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man.. As constitution writer Monroe had previously been involved in the writing of the Second and Third Northwest Territorial Ordinances. As an aside, Monroe had originally been assigned as a translator for Lafayette. Both spent the winter of “77-78 time at Valley Forge with Monroe’s childhood classmate John Marshall. Marshall was Monroe’s chief of the Supreme Court during the Monroe’s Era of Good Feeling. IN addition, in that Era the last living Revolutionary War general, Lafayette. After touring America for a year, Lafayette had expounded on American Exceptualism and the principles of George Mason’s Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, especially its Bill of Rights. Thomas Jefferson wrote its Preamble, which we now recognize as the part of the Declaration of Independence. Their work I call the Constitution of the Democracies. It is separate from the Constitution of the Republic of George Washington which had for the Augustus Caesar a senate and a house of tribunes or representatives with a veto power over both by Washington and Augustus. There was no Bill of Rights acceptable to either.
If you want a fuller explanation of our Constitutional Principles, please contact me..
Some errors occurred in writing the above. Starting with, In addition, in the Ear of Good Feeling, the last living Revolutionary War General, Lafayette, was to tour America for 13 months. Lafayette expounded on American Exceptualism based on its Constitutions including the principles of George Mason’s Constitution of Virginia, copied by John Adams as the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Jefferson wrote the Preamble to the Virginia Constitution, know better a the Preamble to our Declaration of Independence. Their work is the what I call the Jeffersonian Constitution of the Democracies. Our Constitution of the Republic is the Work of George Washington who no longer was Cincinnatus but Augustus Caesar, First Tribune of Rome. He had a senate and a house of tribunes or representative, but both had a veto power over both. Both had the power over the military and foreign affairs and neither provided for a Bill of Rights.
If you want fuller explanations of the above, contact me.